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WINGS AND FETTERS 








































































































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livings and Fetters — Frontispiece . 

- THE GIRL DREW HER SLENDER FIGURE TO ITS FULL HEIGHT.” 

See J>. i8. 



W mgs and Fetters 

A STORY FOR GIRLS 
by 

Florence Morse Kingsley 

Author of' “TITUS," “STEPHEN," “PAUL,” etc. 


with Illustrations by 

REGINALD B. BIRCH 



HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY 

jl jt PHILADELPHIA Jt jt jt 



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THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

T«o CUHttt. ft tCfclvED 

NOV. 190? 

COWPIOHT SNTJTV 

CLASS ^'•XXo No. 

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Copyright, 1902, by Henry Altemus 


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CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

I. 

A Girl’s Decision 

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• 

• 

• 

. 

PAGE 

15 

II. 

A Friend in Need 

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• 

• 

• 

• 

29 

III. 

The House on the Island 

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ft 

47 

IV. 

Patrick has an Idea . 

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65 

V. 

The Pumpkin Coach . 

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81 

VI. 

Hazel’s Discovery 

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99 

VII. 

The Bee-Master . 

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» 

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IX 5 

VIII. 

Winged Amazons . 

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135 

IX. 

Hazel Explains . 

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153 

X. 

Two Maids and a Queen 

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169 

XI. 

A Bee in Her Bonnet 

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ft 

185 

XII. 

Wings .... 





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205 

XIII. 

A Month’s Warning . 

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ft 

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219 

XIV. 

Fetters 

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235 

XV. 

A Rainy Day 

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♦ 

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257 

XVI. 

A Diamond and a Tear 

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ft 

ft 

269 

XVII. 

The Fairy Prince 

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• 

ft 

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287 


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ILLUSTRATIONS. 


The girl drew her slender figure to its full height ” PAGE 

Frontispiece. 

‘ It ’s just too beautiful 1 ’ cried the little girl ” facing 88 ^ 
‘ Fetch some water, quick ! ’ he ordered Hazel ” “ 180 *•' 

‘Yes,’ he whispered, ‘I wished to see you 

always “296 




WINGS AND FETTERS 


CHAPTER I 
A girl's DECISION 

ts | \0 you mean that everything is gone, 
I f Mr. Scudder?” The voice that asked 
the question trembled a little. 

The old lawyer, detecting its uncertain ca- 
dences, drew his grizzled brows together in a 
way which he meant to be at once reassuring 
and intimidating — if such a thing were possible. 
Mr. Scudder was heartily sorry for the girl who 
sat opposite him, her bright, anxious eyes fixed 
upon his face ; but he feared that the young 
person was on the point of bursting into tears. 
On general principles Mr. Scudder disapproved 
of tears. They seriously threatened that high 
15 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


standard of professional decorum which he 
wished always to maintain in interviews with 
his clients. A great number of clients — women 
for the most part, Mr. Scudder recalled — had 
shed tears from the coign of vantage afforded by 
that solid leathern chair drawn precisely in 
front of his own. 

He cleared his throat with a dry, rasping 
sound, indicative of his conclusions. “ I have 
not said, I believe, anything which should lead 
to so sweeping an inference on your part, Miss — 
ah — Gordon,” he began, referring to the card 
which lay on the desk before him. “ Your own 
little property, inherited from your mother, is, 
I am pleased to be able to inform you, intact. 
This sum will enable you, I should suppose, to 
pursue your education to the point where you 
will be self-supporting. A great number of re- 
spectable young women turn their education to 
account nowadays, though personally I can’t say 
that I approve of the custom.” 

Mr. Scudder paused to shake his head and 
16 


A GIRL’S DECISION 


purse up his lips before he went on, with a regret- 
ful pucker of his frosty brows. “ As for your 
late lamented uncle's estate, we are sorry to find 
that when all obligations are met there will be 
practically nothing remaining. During the last 
years of his life, as you are probably not aware, 
Mr. Sedgewick made a series of unfortunate in- 
vestments, as a result of which his widow and 
child will be almost penniless. It is a most un- 
fortunate state of affairs — most deplorable, in 
fact — but the situation must be met.” 

The girl in the leather chair glanced down 
thoughtfully at the slender hands folded in her 
lap. She made no haste to reply. The lawyer 
eyed her with some curiosity, not unmingled 
with kindly concern. To his immense relief, 
there was no token of an approaching flood in 
the clear brown eyes uplifted to meet his own. 

“ You are pursuing a course of study at Bryn 
Mawr, I believe you told me,” he observed, 
briskly. ‘‘Very fortunate, I'm sure! Your 
own property, wisely conserved, will enable you 
*7 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


to complete your education, which, in its turn, 
should render you independent. Your own 
future, I may say, is assured.” 

The girl rose from her chair and drew her 
slender figure to its full height — it was not a 
lofty one. The lawyer, who had also risen, 
looked down upon her with a renewal of his 
uncomfortable apprehensions. “ You will, I 
trust, break the news to your aunt,” he said, 
hastily. u Or, if you prefer, I will myself com- 
municate with Mrs. Sedgewick. I was on the 
point of doing so, in fact, but concluded to see 
you first. These sad affairs are best over with 
at once — er — at once, you know.” 

“ You wish me, Mr. Scudder, to inform Aunt 
Margaret and Hazel that all of Uncle Robert’s 
money is gone,” said the girl, very quietly. 
“After I have made this plain to them, I am to 
take my own money — which is all there is left — 
and return to college for the purpose of making 
myself still more independent of them. Is that 
the course you advise ? ” 

18 


A GIRL’S DECISION 


“ Why — ah — my dear young lady,” said Mr. 
Scudder, finding himself singularly discomfited 
under the prolonged scrutiny of the indignant 
brown eyes. “ Really, you know, there seems 
to be no other course open to you. I offered my 
suggestions in the kindliest spirit; I — er — must 
beg to remind you that I can have no possible in- 
terest in your affairs. It is scarcely necessary for 
me to add that we shall do all in our power to 
arrange matters as comfortably for Mrs. Sedge- 
wick as may be. There will be perhaps a few 
hundreds, sufficient to support the widow and 
child in some modest way for the present. 
There is also a house, unfortunately located, 
and at present untenanted. This property was 
long ago so secured that it cannot be touched. 
It might possibly be sold for a small sum, 
or—” 

The girl had walked swiftly toward the door, 
but at this she turned. 

“I was so angry just now that I did n’t wish 
to talk with you any longer,” she said, simply. 


19 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


“ But I would like you to tell me about tbat 
house.” 

“ Angry ? ” exclaimed the lawyer, in amaze. 
" But not with me assuredly ! ” 

“ Yes,” said the girl, seriously; “that you 
should think that I could be such a — such a 
selfish wretch ! Uncle Bobert always told me 
that I would better not talk much when I am 
angry. I — I always say things, you know — 
things I wish I had not said afterward.” 

“ I don’t think, my dear young lady, that I 
quite follow you,” said the lawyer, with an air 
of laborious politeness. “ I certainly am not 
conscious of haying entertained any derogatory 
opinion of you while proffering what was, to the 
best of my knowledge, advice suitable to the cir- 
cumstances in which a divine providence has 
seen fit to place you. However, I am not sure 
that in the present instance it matters much. 
You — ah — wished to make some inquiries con- 
cerning the property of which I spoke. Did 
you not ? ” 


20 


A GIRL’S DECISION 


“ Yes,” said Miss Gordon, with some eager- 
ness. “ If the house is habitable, why should we 
not go to it ? My money will be enough to live 
on, perhaps, if we are very careful. Don’t you 
think it will ? ” 

The lawyer raised his brows. “Then you 
contemplate — ah — giving up your own career ? ” 
he said, dryly. 

The girl compressed her delicate lips. “ I 
must stay with them,” she said, somewhat coldly. 
“ I cannot imagine any other career at present.” 

“ The house,” said Mr. Scudder, after a short 
period of reflection — possibly devoted to the ever- 
perplexing feminine element in a world of law 
and order — “is located in a retired spot on 
Staten Island. To be precise, it is situated 
near the outskirts of a small village known as 
Richmond Manor. It is an old house, built 
some seventy odd years ago by the late Robert 
Sedge wick’s grandfather. It was a good house 
in its day — a fine old place, in fact ; it is still 
known as the Sedgewick Mansion. But it has 


21 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


remained un tenanted for years, and must be sadly 
out of repair. I should not advise — ” 

“ I think I had best look at it,” murmured 
the girl, as if to herself. “ I simply cannot 
imagine Aunt Margaret and Hazel in a stuffy, 
fifth-rate boarding-house.” She lifted her 
troubled brown eyes to the old lawyer’s face with 
a look of pathetic appeal. “ You said we must 
leave — home — right away ? ” 

“ I stated that it would be impossible for 
your uncle’s widow to continue her present style 
of living — yes, certainly. As for the old house 
on Staten Island — well, yes, I think you will do 
well to inspect it. Mrs. Sedgewick is not, I 
am told, able to consider business matters at 
present ? ” 

“Aunt Margaret is perfectly crushed,” said 
the girl ; “ and Hazel is nothing but a child. 
But I will manage — I must manage. They 
have been so good to me ! ” 

The old lawyer pursed up his lip in a non- 
committal way. He remembered perfectly the 


22 


A GIRL’S DECISION 


clay in wliich Robert Sedgewick had telephoned 
to his office that he must start at once for Ari- 
zona for the purpose of bringing home his 
sister’s orphaned child, and that therefore he 
could not be present at an important meeting 
of the N. Y. B. and J. C. Consolidated Traction 
Company. Mr. Scudder had ventured to hint 
to his client that his absence on this particular 
occasion might imperil certain interests, which 
were even then known to be trembling in the 
balance. Could not Mr. Sedgewick wait a few 
days ; or, better, could he not send someone else 
to fetch the child ? 

Mr. Sedgewick had replied decidedly that he 
not only could not but would not entrust the mat- 
ter to another. He had started for the West that 
very day, and had returned two weeks later with 
a tiny, brown-eyed girl, who practically repre- 
sented (Mr. Scudder told himself) the fortune of 
his late client, since in his absence the N. Y. B. 
and J. C. Consolidated Traction Company had 
met and passed measures which led eventually 
23 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


to the present crisis in the Sedgewick family 
affairs. 

Mr. Scudder wondered a little if the girl 
knew anything of all this. His thoughts tinged 
his next remark: “ Your late lamented uncle was 
certainly less charitable to himself than to other 
people,” he said, caustically. “ Charity begins 
at home, I have always been told.” 

“ Yes, and ends there with most people,” 
thought the girl, with a flash of indignant feel- 
ing. “ Uncle Robert was the dearest and best 
man that ever lived/’ she said, unsteadily. 
“And I — but, oh, I can’t talk about it ! ” She 
broke off suddenly, and Mr. Scudder began 
fussily to open and shut the drawers in his 
desk. 

He found what he wanted presently, and be- 
gan a hasty explanation of certain matters con- 
nected with the house on Staten Island. In con- 
clusion, he presented the girl with his card, 
upon which he had scrawled a few words intro- 
ducing her to the local agent. “ I think you 

24 


A GIRL’S DECISION 


will find the old place impossible,” he said, 
shaking his head — “ everything gone to ruin 
and decay. You ’ll be glad to take my advice 
yet ; I think I must see your aunt and lay the 
matter plainly before her.” 

“ No, you must not do that — you shall not!” 
said the girl, earnestly. “I shall stay with Aunt 
Margaret and take care of her; I want her to 
have every cent of my money, and I don’t want 
her to know. Promise me that you will not 
say anything to her — about the money, I mean, 
and going back to college. I would n’t go back 
for worlds !” 

And yet, as she hurried homeward under the 
shelter of the darkening twilight skies, this very 
positive young woman shed some of the very 
bitterest tears her brown eyes had ever known. 
“ But I would n’t go back,” she repeated to her- 
self. “ I don’t want to go back ! I could n’t be 
so heartless and ungrateful.” 

It was quite dark when she ran up the flight 
of broad stone steps leading to a handsome house, 

25 


a — Wings and Fetters. 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


in whose windows lights were beginning to shine 
cheerfully. The elderly manservant who opened 
the door eyed the young lady anxiously as she 
stepped past him. “ I am late, Patrick,” she 
said, with forced cheerfulness. “ Has any one 
been here ? ” 

“ No one but the doctor, miss,” replied the 
man, respectfully. “ He went an hour ago.” 

The swift step was already half-way up the 
stair. A tap at a closed door and the girl was 
admitted to a dimly-lighted room by a little 
figure, which seemed to start up from among the 
shadows. “ Oh, Love, is that you ? I thought 
you were never coming ! ” 

“ I have been a long time,” said the girl, reach- 
ing to turn a flood of light upon the scene. 
“ Why are n’t you with mother, Hazel ? ” 

“ I think she ’s asleep,” said the child, nod- 
ding wisely toward the shadowy room beyond. 
‘‘ I ’ve been thinking a long time, sitting over 
in that corner. I was thinking what if daddy 
should open the door and come in, his eyes all 


A GIRL’S DECISION 


smiley and bright — you remember, Love ? He 
would have a big bunch of violets for mother ; 
he used to bring them just such evenings as this. 
And he would say : ‘ Hello, little woman, what 
sort of a study are you in to-night — pink, blue, 
green, brown or yellow?' Because once I told 
him that I thought that expression, ‘She fell 
into a brown study,' was perfectly ridiculous. 
It is in so many story books — that brown study ; 
don’t you remember, Love? So when daddy 
used to see me quiet, as if I was thinking hard 
about something, he would ask me what color 
of a study I was in. Sometimes I told him 
‘pink/ if I was thinking about the fun I had 
been having in school in the morning ; or * blue/ 
if I did n't have my tables properly learned, and 
Miss Porter kept me after lessons ; and once it 
was truly ‘green/ because I was envious of Sadie 
Swan's coral necklace — it really was ever so much 
prettier than mine. But to-night I should have 
said ‘ brown ’ — just plain, dull, dark, horrid 
brown; and I don't believe I shall ever have 
27 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


any other color of a study in my whole life. 
Do you think I shall, Lovina Gordon ? ” 

Miss Gordon smiled a little at sound of her 
old-fashioned name. But her eyes were very 
sweet and pleasant as she answered the little 
girl’s question : “ Yes, indeed, Hazel dear, I am 
sure you will have ever so many beautifully 
colored studies ; and you must try to have them 
now. I am sure that is what daddy would like 
for you.” 

Hazel shook the dark, curling hair off her 
forehead as she wound her thin arms about her 
cousin’s waist. ‘‘Lovina Gordon,” she said, 
earnestly, “ your eyes looked just like daddy’s 
when you said that. I ’m glad I have you 
left!” 


28 


CHAPTER II 
A FKIEND IN NEED 

A STIR in the room beyond, followed by a 
faint request for a light, startled both 
girls. “ I ’m afraid I spoke too loud 
and waked mother,” murmured Hazel, regret- 
fully ; “ I ’m always so — percipitate ! ” 

Love Gordon did not even smile at Hazel’s 
latest acquisition to her vocabulary. She hast- 
ened to turn up the light, then paused doubt- 
fully beside the bed in which Mrs. Sedgewick 
lay, propped to a half-reclining position with 
great pillows. “ Did you have your tea, Aunt 
Margaret ? ” she asked. 

“ How can you ask such a question, child ? ” 
syllabled Mrs. Sedgewick faintly. “ Since Jane 
left me no one remembers to ask me whether I 


29 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


care for tea or not. But no matter ; it may not 
be long that I shall care for anything.” 

Hazel burst into a loud cry of grief. “ Don’t 
say that, mother,” she begged, burying her 
small tear-stained face in the coverlid. “ I am 
willing to work my fingers to the bone for you — 
that ’s what Jane used to say — and I am truly 
willing, if I could remember all the things to do. 
Besides, you were asleep at four o’clock, mother 
— dear, dear mother.” 

Mrs. Sedgewick flashed a look of indignant 
protest at the older girl. “ How can you allow 
the child to make such a scene in my room,” 
she said, rather sharply, “ when you know that 
my nerves are all in a quiver at the slightest 
sound ? ” 

Love laid a soothing hand on Hazel’s bowed 
head, and, stooping, whispered a few words in 
her ear. The little girl rose obediently. “ Good- 
night, dear mother,” she said in a low voice. 
“ I think I will study my lessons now, and go 
to bed.” 

30 


A FRIEND IN NEED 


Mrs. Sedgewick submitted to the kiss the child 
offered, then lay back among the pillows with 
closed eyes. 

41 ‘ Don’t you think, Aunt Margaret,” ventured 
the girl, “ that you would enjoy your dinner 
better if Patrick served it in the other room ? 
I will help you put on your dressing-gown.” 

“ I wonder that you can propose such a thing, 
child ! ” murmured Mrs. Sedgewick, feebly. 
“ The doctor said this afternoon that I must be 
kept perfectly quiet — my nerves have had such 
a terrible shock in the death of your poor uncle. 
I don’t feel now as though I ever cared to 
move from this room again.” She folded her 
delicate hands, upon which sparkled several fine 
diamonds, and sighed deeply. 

Love Gordon stared anxiously at the pretty, 
worn face in its setting of dark, loose hair, her 
heart beating fast with apprehension as the 
lawyer’s ominous words recurred to her mind. 

“ Doctor Manning strongly advises me to take 
Hazel and spend the summer months abroad,” 
31 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


pursued Mrs. Sedgewick with a slight access of 
animation. “ But I told him that I could n’t 
think of starting before June. I shall try and 
get away then. But it exhausts me to even 
think of such a thing now.” 

“But, dear Aunt Margaret,” faltered the 
girl, “it will cost so much to go abroad. Don’t 
you think — ” 

Mrs. Sedgewick’s eyes flashed open. “ What 
an absurd fancy ! ” she exclaimed. “ If one 
wished to economize, that would be the very 
thing to do ; but why should I economize, 
pray ? ” 

“ Because,” said the girl firmly, though her 
heart beat loud in her ears, “ Uncle Robert’s 
money is almost all lost, and we shall have to 
live on ever so little.” 

There was a breathless silence in the room 
for a moment, then Mrs. Sedgewick began to 
cry feebly : “ Why will you say such dreadful 
things to me ? ” she moaned. “ As if I had not 
suffered enough already ! ” 

3 2 


A FRIEND IN NEED 


“ Don't cry, dear — dear Aunt Margaret," 
begged Love Gordon, chafing her aunt’s slender 
hands in an agony of tenderness. “ I will work 
and take care of you. Indeed, I will do my 
best — my very best — to make you happy and 
comfortable ! ” 

Mrs. Sedgewick drew her hands away with 
a fretful exclamation. “You are so unnec- 
essarily vigorous in your movements, Love, 
and your hands — really, one would think you 
were a boy, they are so hard. Jane’s touch was* 
much more sympathetic. Where did you get 
such an absurd notion about the loss of the 
money ? It quite startled me ; but, of course, 
there is no foundation for such an idle fancy. 
You should never allow the servants to speak to 
you about family matters, my dear ; your poor 
uncle indulged some of them till they are ready 
to take the most unheard-of liberties. I have 
made up my mind to discharge Patrick and 
Collins as soon as I am able. I think it would 
be better for my nerves to see new faces about.” 

33 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


“It was n’t Patrick, Aunt Margaret,” said 
Love, in a low, tremulous voice. “ It was Mr. 
Scudder. He sent for me to come to his office 
this afternoon, and told me. We must leave 
this house immediately.” 

“Mr. Scudder must be taking leave of his 
senses,” exclaimed Mrs. Sedgewick, with sharp 
indignation in her voice. “ Ping for Jane to 
bring my writing things ; I must tell him at 
once what I think of him for daring to give me 
such a fright ! ” 

Then the poor lady began to cry in earnest, 
passing from a fit of sobbing into strong hys- 
terics. In the end Collins and the two house- 
maids and even Patrick were called to Miss 
Gordan’s assistance. The doctor was hastily 
sent for, and the house presented a scene of the 
liveliest confusion till late in the eveniug, when, 
as Mrs. Sedgewick had sufficiently recovered 
herself to partake of a delicate little supper, the 
girl retired to her own room, heartsick and 
weary. 


34 


A FRIEND IN NEED 


The strong, kindly eyes of the pictured face 
on the wall seemed to be watching her sympa- 
thetically as she sank into the easy-chair before 
her fireless grate. “Oh, Uncle Rob,” she 
sighed, “ I will do my best ! But I do feel so 
hopelessly young and insufficient ! ” 

She looked undeniably youthful as she gazed 
longingly through her tears at the beloved face 
of the only father she could remember. But 
there was no hint of weakness about the girlish 
face; the limpid brown eyes set beneath wide, 
level brows, the delicate curves of mouth, cheek 
and chin betokening strength as well as 
beauty. 

A tap at the door roused the girl from a 
painful reverie in which she pictured the fastid- 
ious invalid below stairs as shrinking back horror- 
stricken at sight of the ruinous old house on 
Staten Island. “Is that you, Patrick?” she 
asked, with a start of relief as the wrinkled face 
of the butler was protruded cautiously into the 
room. 


35 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


“ Yes, Miss Love,” said the old man ; “ I want 
you to come down to the dining-room and get a 
mouthful of supper. Dinner spoiled whilst we 
were all busy with the madam.” 

“ I don’t believe I should have thought of 
it, Patrick, but I am very hungry,” said the 
girl, rising. “ Thank you, I will come down at 
once.” 

The big dining-room, with its dark carved 
oak, its pieces of antique silver, its glowing 
pictures, its polished coppers and brasses blent 
into an interior of exceeding richness, which 
glowed flower-like in the radiance of fire and 
candlelight. The room looked to-night just as 
Love remembered to have seen it in the old days 
which already seemed so sadly far away. She 
sat down, a slight, solitary figure, at one side of 
the polished mahogany table. The old butler 
hovered affectionately near, supplying her wants 
in his own peculiarly deft, noiseless fashion. 

“ You ’ll be going back soon to the big school, 
I ’ve been thinking,” he ventured, as the girl 
3 6 


A FRIEND IN NEED 


rose from her chair at the conclusion of the 
meal. 

“No, Patrick, I am not going back to college,” 
she said, meeting his anxious eyes with a faint 
smile. “Aunt Margaret and Hazel will need 
me at home.” 

“ An* it ’s from your own kind heart that you 
say that ! ” cried Patrick. “ I was telling Col- 
lins so this very day. Miss Love ’ll never be 
leaving us, I says ; with the madam that weak 
an’ delicate that she can’t bear the sound of our 
voices.” 

The girl looked sadly into the kind, rugged 
face of the old butler. She knew him for more 
than a faithful servant; her uncle had long 
counted him a faithful friend. “ If anything 
should happen to me, Love,” he had once said 
to her with a flash of prescience, “ be sure that 
you keep Patrick with you ; his whole heart is 
bound up in the family life.” The memory of 
this saying made the words which hovered upon 
her lips difficult of utterance. But her voice 
37 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


was clear and steady as she said : “ I fear we 
shall have to leave this house, Patrick, and give 
up everything here. I tell you this because 
you and Collins and the rest will have to find 
new places.” 

“ But, Miss Love,” stammered the old man in 
his painful astonishment, “ is it the money ? Do 
you mean that the money is gone ? ” 

The girl bowed her head ; it seemed increas- 
ingly difficult to speak. 

“ But where will you be going, miss ? An’ 
whatever can you be doing with — with the 
madam and the child ? There hi be many a 
snug corner of the world open to yourself, I ’m 
thinking. You would never be the one to fret 
if the roof that covered you was plain an’ humble. 
But the madam — ” 

“ I shall not leave them,” said the girl. “We 
must all stay together whatever happens.” Then 
she told him what the lawyer had said. He 
nodded emphatically when she mentioned the old 
house on Staten Island. 

38 


A FRIEND IN NEED 


“ I know the place well/’ he said, meditatively. 
“ Many ’s the job of weeding I did in the gar- 
dens there when my father was living an’ I a 
young lad, not liking over much to work in the 
ground. The young master was born in the old 
house, an’ well I remember the day. The family 
used to move out there as regular as clock-work 
the first day of May of every year, an’ back in 
town they all were the day after Thanksgiving. 
It was a fine old place in those days, with the 
coach-houses and the big barns, the gardens, 
graperies an’ greenhouses. An there was no 
end of outbuildings for storing tools, bulbs, ten- 
der roots and the like. I remember as though 
it was yesterday how my father shut me into 
the tool-house for a w T hole afternoon once be- 
cause I threatened to run away to sea after weed- 
ing the onion-patch. Onions is nasty things to 
keep clear of weeds, sure, an’ I could never 
please my father in the doing of it. Yes, it was 
a fine place ! ” 

Love Gordon had drawn her delicate brows 
39 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


together &nd was looking very sober. “ If it is 
that sort of a place, Patrick,” she said, “I fear 
there is no use of going to see it. It would 
cost too much to live there, and Mr. Scudder 
told me that the house was sadly out of repair 
— gone to ruin and decay, he said.” 

“ Don’t you believe it, miss,” said Patrick, 
stoutly. “That house was n’t run up in a week 
out of the thin, shoddy stuff they put into thim 
nowadays. Black oak timbers, they was, that 
went into it ; I ’ve heard my father tell of the 
building of the old house many a time. The 
studding was thicker than your waist, miss, an’ 
the walls are lined solid with brick an’ mortar. 
No, the old Sedgewick mansion was n’t made to 
fall to pieces in a day, miss — no, nor in a life- 
time ! You ’ll be going to see it to-morrow, 
Miss Love, an’ it ’s Patrick Miles that ’s going 
with you. We ’ll see what there is to see, any- 
how ! ” 

An unreasoning hope took possession of the 
girl’s heart as she made ready to sleep that night. 

40 


A FRIEND IN NEED 


“ I am sure I don’t know why it is,” she mur- 
mured, as she regarded the bright-eyed vision 
that gazed back at her from the depths of her 
mirror, “ but I feel happier to-night than I have 
since Uncle Robert died.” 

Perhaps it was the actual warmth radiating 
from Patrick’s kind soul which penetrated and 
warmed into comfort her benumbed heart. Per- 
haps it was a faint radiance shining on her for- 
ward way, but she fell asleep smiling, and 
dreamed of walking in a beautiful garden, where 
masses of blossoms were springing on every 
hand, pink and white hyacinths, and daffodils 
royal yellow, crocus, purple and gold and white, 
and violets peeping out from coverts of cool, 
green leaves, all nodding their starry heads in a 
light so sweet that she sang aloud for very joy 
of heart. And the song remained in her heart 
and on her lips as she opened her eyes to the 
new day, which looked in grey and somber at 
the window. 

The thousand fretting noises of the city streets 

$ — Wings arid Fetters. 4 j 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


* greeted her in subdued chorus as she stood for 
a moment fully dressed looking out. A hand- 
organ, wheezy and discordant, whined out the 
half-forgotten melody of “ Sweet Violets,” its 
feeble chords drowned in the uninterruped 
rumble of wheels near and far, and the distant 
cries of street-venders. The shrill chirping of 
innumerable sparrows filled the nearer air ; a 
pair of them engaged in a heated quarrel dropped 
upon the sill almost within reach of her hand. 
Their strident voices dominated all other sounds 
as they dealt savage blows right and left with 
their blunt beaks. Another moment and they 
plunged with furious haste into the street, carry- 
ing on their combat to a finish almost under the 
hoofs of an advancing horse. 

The girl sighed ; the radiant garden of her 
dreams seemed very far away from the grey tints 
^of her present surroundings. Yet the light 
lingered on her young face, so that Mrs. Sedge- 
wick, sighing dismally in the face of the morn- 
ing, remarked it. ‘‘You look as fresh as a milk- 


42 


A FRIEND IN NEED 


maid, Love,” she said fretfully. “ How you and 
Hazel can sleep and eat and enjoy yourselves as 
you do through everything is more than I can 
understand ! But some people seem born with- 
out any sensibility, and can endure what 
simply crushes one with delicate nerves and a 
sensitive disposition.” 

The hot color that flooded the girl’s face 
actually forced the tears ; but she answered very 
quietly : “ Don’t you think that when one must 
endure a trouble, Aunt Margaret, one ought to 
be as patient as possible, so as not to make it 
harder for other people ? ” She was sorry for 
the words before they were fairly spoken, and 
she was sorrier yet before Mrs. Sedge wick had 
done with the rambling, querulous complaints 
apparently called forth by her words. The poor 
lady looked worn and fragile in the light that 
now streamed in brightly through the half-closed 
blind, and Love’s heart smote her as she stepped 
softly about, performing the humble offices of the 
sick-room. 


43 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


“ Dear Aunt Margaret/’ she said gently, “ I 
am very thoughtless, I know ; but have patience 
with me, I will try to improve.” 

Mrs. Sedgewick glanced at the glowing young 
face with a mixture of impatience and admir- 
ation. “ I know you mean to do your best, 
Love,” she said plaintively; “but you simply 
cannot enter into feelings like mine. Only think 
how you brought on that terrible nervous attack 
last night through sheer carelessness — and after 
all the doctors have said about my keeping 
quiet! ” 

Love bit her lip. “ I am very sorry that I 
had to speak of it,” she said hastily. “ I ought 
to have waited till this morning, when you were 
feeling rested.” 

“ Rested ! ” echoed Mrs. Sedgewick ; “ I am 
never rested. I lie awake hour after hour and 
hear the clock strike. While we are on the 
subject, I will tell you that I have sent for 
Mr. Scudder. I mean to have a plain talk with 
him. I ’m sure I don’t know how I shall be 


44 


A FRIEND IN NEED 


able to endure the sound of his terribly pene- 
trating nasal voice ; but I am determined to have 
matters arranged so that I can rest comfortably 
till I am able to go abroad. I have made up 
my mind to take you with me, Love,” she added 
graciously ; “ you are quite a comfort to me.” 

The girl stooped to leave a grateful kiss on 
the white fingers which lay on the coverlid. 
“ Could you spare me awhile to-day, Aunt 
Margaret?” she asked hestitatingly. “I will 
leave everything ready, and Suzette will wait 
just outside the door and bring up your tea at 
five. It shall not be forgotten again.” 

Mrs. Sedgewick looked offended. “ You know 
that I don’t like Suzette about me,” she said ; 
“ the girl is so unlike Jane in every movement. 
Still you must go, I suppose, if you have made 
up your mind. Your poor uncle always spoiled 
you completely. Don’t go anywhere, though, 
without one of the maids.” 

Love smiled rather sadly. “ Patrick is going 
with me,” she said. 


45 


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CHAPTER III 


THE HOUSE ON THE ISLAND 

H AZEL sat curled into a small, discon- 
solate bunch in the deep window-seat 
of the breakfast-room. She looked up 
from a book as her cousin entered. “I am 
dreadfully behind in my lessons, Love,” she 
announced with a sigh. “ Must I go to school 
this week ? ” 

The older girl glanced thoughfully at the il- 
lumined calendar which hung near. “ Is n’t it 
nearly time for a new quarter to commence ? ” 
she asked. 

“ Yes, it begins to-morrow,” said Hazel. “ I 
remember because Miss Porter said she wished 
to see every young lady in her place punct-u-ally 
47 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


on the morning of the ninth, as she had some- 
thing important to communicate.” 

Miss Gordon smiled at the child’s quaint as- 
sumption of the stately airs of the preceptress. 
Then her face grew sober as she looked down 
into the thin little face with its too large eyes 
upturned to meet her own. “ How would you 
like to stop school for awhile and do your lessons 
with me ? ” she asked. 

“I should like it above all things !” cried 
Hazel, springing up and casting her book upon 
the floor. “ What fun it will be to see the other 
girls hurrying past in the morning ! Of course, 
I shall study like everything for you,” she 
added with a comical grimace; “you’ll be 
such a strict governess, Lovina Gordon ! ” 

“ Indeed I shall, as you shall see,” said her 
cousin laughing. “ But come, we must make 
haste with our breakfast ; we are going some- 
where this morning, you and I and Patrick.” 

“ Where are we going ? ” demanded the child. 
“ Is it something pleasant — a surprise ? I 
48 


THE HOUSE ON THE ISLAND 


have n’t had any nice surprise for an age. 
Nothing but dreadful ones.” 

“ Some of it will be pleasant,” said Love 
brightly, as she smiled into the quivering little 
face. “A ferry-boat ride to Staten Island will be 
cheerful this breezy day ; don’t you think it will ?” 

“ But why should you and I and Patrick go 
to Staten Island?” asked Hazel. “Does mother 
know?” 

“ She knows we are going out — yes,” said 
Love. “ I would n’t talk much in mother’s 
room this morning, Hazel,” she added gravely; 
“ you know she was very nervous last night. 
We must be careful not to disturb her again.” 

“I think I could be nervous,” said Hazel medi- 
tatively. “ Sometimes, do you know, I feel just 
like screaming as loud as I can. Suppose I 
should do it some day in school — or in church ! 
Then I would probably laugh to think how 
surprised all the people would be, and after that 
I should cry to think I had laughed. Then I 
should have hysterics, and maybe faint away.” 

49 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


“ I don , t think you ought to talk that way, 
Hazel,” said her cousin gravely, though with a 
slight twinkle in her eyes. “ You know you 
would never do anything so foolish.” 

“ No, I would n’t,” said the child emphati- 
cally. “ Nerves are queer,” she added after a 
pause ; “ they are like 4 things that get in. the 
saddle and ride mankind.’” 

“ Where in the world — ■” began Miss Gordon 
wonderingly. 

“ That ’s a quotation, Lovina Gordon ; if 
you ’re going to be a governess and teach me, 
you ’ll have to know quotations.” 

“ I think I shall have to know a number of 
things,” murmured the Bryn Mawr student, 
wrinkling her forehead. 

It was a breezy March morning, and the 
beautiful bay was tossed into innumerable white- 
crested, amber-colored waves, while against the 
more distant shores, and under the rapidly drift- 
ing cloud-shadows and beneath the hulls of 
moving vessels, were belts and patches of ame- 
5 ° 


THE HOUSE ON THE ISLAND 


thyst dashed with green. The two girls stood 
on the forward deck of the great, clumsy ferry- 
boat, as she nosed her way cautiously among 
the swarming tugs and steamers at South 
Ferry. 

“ Just see the new bridge, Love,” cried Hazel ; 
“it look$ almost like the old one, only more 
cobweb-like. ,, 

“That is because the cables are new and 
shining,” said the girl. “ See, dear, there is a 
big steamship just coming in.” 

They were well out from the shore as they 
passed slowly by the big ocean greyhound, as 
Hazel sentimentally called it, coming in from 
her long race between the continents. “See, 
it is all covered with foam,” she said, “ like a 
horse that has been driven too hard. — Yes,” 
added the little girl wisely, “I know well enough 
what all that white stuff on the smoke-stacks 
really is: it is the salt from the big waves which 
has dried on. Do you know, Lovina Gordon, 
you sometimes seem a little dull to me? I was 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


only carrying out the figure. Did n’t you learn 
to carry out the figure at college?” 

Love admitted meekly that she had heard of 
the exercise, but begged to remind her young 
pupil that she had herself taken liberties with 
the figure. “ You should have said, ‘ like a dog 
that has been running too fast/ if you are going 
to call the ship a greyhound.” 

Hazel smiled approvingly. “ I am glad you 
noticed that,” she said. “ I like to have confi- 
dence in my teachers. I want them to know 
ever and ever so much more than I do. I 
should like never to ask them a single question 
that they could not answer right away.” 

“ I think we should all like a teacher of that 
sort,” said Love thoughtfully ; “ but the next 
best thing is to have one honest enough to say, 
‘ I don’t know.’ Perfectly honest people are 
even rarer than learned ones,” she added sen- 
tentiously. 

“That may be true/’ observed Hazel inci- 
sively; “but I think you said it just like a 
52 


THE HOUSE ON THE ISLAND 


sophomore. Just think, Love, if you don’t go 
back to college, you will have to stay a sopho- 
more forever and ever!” 

Love laughed aloud, a sound as fresh and 
cheerful as the rush of the water under the 
broad forefoot of the big craft. “What a dread- 
ful prospect!” she cried, and turned to meet a 
pair of keen grey eyes, which a young man sit- 
ting near them lifted from the paper he was 
reading. The warm color flooded the girl’s 
face. “ I think we had best go around to the 
other side,” she said hastily. “ Patrick is there, 
and I want to see that funny little light- 
house.” 

“ Did you think that man heard what I said,” 
whispered Hazel — “about being a sophomore 
forever and ever.” 

“I don’t know; but I ’m afraid we both for- 
got that we were not alone.” 

“ That is one trouble about being poor,” said 
Hazel meditatively. “Poor people always go 
about in big droves and swarms — like the people 
53 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


in the cabin there. I should hate to be poor; 
should n’t you?” 

“ I am poor,” said Love. Her face fell as 
she said it. 

Hazel began stoutly to combat this • statement ; 
but in the bustle which presently ensued at the 
terminus the question was dropped. 

Patrick seemed to know just where to go, and 
the two girls soon found themselves seated in a 
train running smoothly along the arm of the 
sea which cuts off from the skirt of the conti- 
nent that small fragment known as Staten Island. 
A forest of chimneys, presided over by one giant 
shaft towering more than three hundred feet 
into the air, filled the further shore, along which 
were moored hundreds of dingy vessels. 

“ Thim yonder is the oil refineries and the 
varnish works,” Patrick informed them. “An 
nasty things they be, choking the air on this 
side when the wind ’s in the north,” he added, 
eyeing the tall chimney severely. “ They do 
say as how that big fellow there ’ll carry off all 
54 


THE HOUSE ON THE ISLAND 


the smells up into heaven; but tliim that lives 
there won’t be thanking thim if it does.” He 
rose from his seat as he concluded this dictum, 
and peered out at an approaching station. 
“ Here we are, young ladies, an’ it ’s right well 
I remember the place!” 

“ Where are we going?” demanded Hazel, 
brimming over with unappeased curiosity, as 
they seated themselves in the trolley-car. Love 
opened her lips to reply, but blushed instead. 
She had caught another discomfiting glance from 
the keen grey eyes which had startled her on 
board the ferry. Their owner immediately 
busied himself with a book, which he read per- 
sistently despite the jolting of the car. 

The streets through which they were passing 
were mean and ugly; though now and then one 
had a glimpse of a fine old mansion standing 
aloof amid its trees and shrubbery, as if trying 
to hide from its distasteful neighbors. 

“I don’t like Staten Island at all,” announced 
Hazel conclusively. “It is very ugly indeed!” 

55 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


“ Just wait a bit, Miss Hazel,” said Patrick, 
“ till you see where we ’re going ; you won’t 
think it ’s so ugly, maybe.” 

“ If I have asked once, I have asked one — 
two — yes, at least five times, where we are going,” 
said the child severely. “ Do you know, Patrick ?” 

“We are going to see the master’s old home, 
miss,” said the man softly. 

Hazel clasped her hands in an ecstasy. “Oh,” 
she said, “ I am so glad ! Daddy used to tell 
me stories often and often about when he was a 
little boy, and of the splendid fun he had over 
here. Once he asked mother to come and stay 
a summer ; but she said she could n’t abide 
Staten Island. It was so common nowadays, 
filled up with poor people who could n’t afford 
to live in town, and swarming with mosquitoes.” 

Patrick looked very dignified, and the blank, 
unhearing expression which he assumed at great 
dinner-parties crept over his face. He made no 
reply. 

“ It certainly looks as if dreadfully poor peo- 
5 6 


THE HOUSE ON THE ISLAND 


pie lived around here,’* continued Hazel, glanc- 
ing out of the car window. “ Such dirty little 
houses, and the streets — ugh!” This last as a 
whirl of dust, driven before the capricious March 
wind, entered the open door and distributed itself 
impartially among the passengers. The car had 
stopped to admit a big German woman, armed 
with a bigger basket, and exhaling an odor of 
beer and sauer-kraut, which caused the fastidious 
little lady to draw away with frowning brows. 

But presently the big woman with the big 
basket got off before the door of a brewery, and 
then the poor little houses became fewer. After 
a while they disappeared altogether, and were 
succeeded by stretches of rolling meadow-lands 
and patches of fine woods. Here and there a 
massive stone gate-way introduced the eye to a 
winding drive, which disappeared amid masses 
of trees and shrubs. Peaked roofs and tall 
chimneys lifted themselves haughtily in isolated 
spots. 

“ Now, miss,” said Patrick — the dinner-party 
57 


4 — Wings and Fetters. 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


expression quite banished from his wrinkled 
face — “this looks more like old Staten Island. 
They ’ve quite spoiled the shores on the north 
side — an’ more ’s the pity ; what with the facto- 
ries an’ the breweries an’ all the folks that 
gathers ’round such places! Sure an’ I remem- 
ber the day when the finest of the fine folks in 
town yonder had to have their summer houses 
out here. It was the Quarantine Islands that 
spoiled it all. The ladies would have it that 
yellow fever an’ cholera an’ the like ’ud blow 
acrost.” 

“ Quarantine Islands ! ” repeated Hazel. “ That’s 
where they keep the sick people that come in 
on the ships. I know because daddy told me 
all about it once when we went to Sandy Hook 
to see the yacht-races. They’ve always been 
there, Patrick.” 

“ No, miss, they was n’t always there. There 
was just a couple of sand-bars that you could 
see at low tide. They built ’em up with stone 
an’ what-not till they ’re solid ground enough 
58 


• c 


THE HOUSE ON THE ISLAND 


now. But there ’s no danger of fever blowing 
acrost all the salt water, and never was. It 
spoilt Staten Island, though, for lots of the rich 
people. They shut up their fine houses, an’ 
went off to Long Branch an’ Newport an' Nar- 
ragansett.” 

The old man signalled the conductor to stop 
as he spoke the last words, and all three stood 
presently in considerable perplexity at the head 
of a new, raw-looking street that stretched away 
through the fields, dotted here and there with 
small houses of ornate build. 

Not far away was a stone gateway partly 
fallen into ruin, the deep-cut trail of wheels 
showing that some one had lately passed that 
way. Patrick looked thoughtfully about him. 
“ This is the old place, sure,” he said, his face 
clouding with dismay. “ I reckon we ’d best 
follow the trail ; it ’ll fetch us to the house — 
unless they Ve made way with it, as they have 
with the gate there. This was the old carriage 
59 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


road, miss, an’ a fine one it was, firm an’ hard, 
though you would n’t guess it.” 

The driveway, half effaced with rank-growing 
grasses and the tangled web of the creeping black- 
berry, wound among groups of great chestnuts 
and hickories, presently bringing into view a 
little eminence crowned with grey buildings. Pat- 
rick stopped short and stared for a moment with- 
out speaking, then he hurried forward so fast 
that the girls could hardly keep pace with him. 
It was a big, rambling, many-windowed struc- 
ture of no particular style ; piazzas at front and 
sides, and a plenitude of gables and bow-win- 
dows, curiously topped with a battlemented cor- 
nice, which had fallen here and there into ruin. 
On either side, as if keeping guard over the 
decaying fortunes of the old roof- tree, stood a 
pair of giant cedars, one of which had lost its 
crown in some wintry storm, for it lay across 
their path as the little party came silently up to 
the long-closed front door. The aspect of the 
forsaken house was sad and melancholy ; it seemed 
60 


THT HOUSE ON THE ISLAND 


to be holding a plaintive dialogue with the an- 
cient cedars which whispered mysteriously as the 
wind rushed by, slamming some loosened and 
creaking blind in its wild passage. 

Hazel shivered a little and thrust her cold, 
little hand into Love’s warm one. “ Somehow 
it makes me want to cry,” she whispered. “ It 
looks like an old, old person who has been left 
alone so long that he has forgotten how to 
smile.” 

“An empty house is never very cheerful to 
look at, dear,” said Love, speaking with a confi- 
dence which she did not feel. She glanced up 
anxiously as she spoke. The sky was darken- 
ing with one of the swift-approaching storms of 
early spring. Patrick now emerged from be- 
hind the house, looking as gloomy as the March 
heavens, his hands clasped behind his back. 

“ I think it is going to rain, Patrick,” said 
the young lady. “ I wish we had gone to the 
agent for the keys at once, then we could go in 
till it clears. As it is, perhaps we had best 
61 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


seek shelter in one of the houses over there.” 
She glanced dubiously as she spoke at a cottage 
which seemed to flaunt its fantastic, imperti- 
nently new roof in the face of the pathetic old 
mansion. 

“ No trouble about our getting in, miss,” said 
Patrick, with strong indignation in his voice. 
“Anybody could get in, for that matter. I found 
one of the long windows in the dining-room 
unlocked. If you ’ll just step ’round this way, 
I ’ll show you, miss. A fine agent they ’ve put 
in charge, sure! An’ a shame to thim, the way 
they ’ve spoiled the ol’ place ! ” 

The two girls stepped into the long, French 
window which Patrick had found unlatched 
just as a gust of mingled wind and rain struck 
the house. The old man busied himself in 
making the window fast against the rain which 
was now pouring in a. furious flood. “A shame 
to thim,” he was grumbling to himself. “An’ the 
shrubbery all broken down, an’ the coach-house 
windows smashed, an’ the fruit trees grown over 


62 


THE HOUSE ON THE ISLAND 


with black knot, an’ the garden a wilderness, 
an’ half the glass in the greenhouses gone. A 
shame to thim, I says, whoever they be as has 
done it ! ” 

He turned to glance at his young mistresses, 
who were examining the room with a good deal 
of curiosity. 

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CHAPTER IV 


PATRICK HAS AN IDEA. 

I N the gray light which struggled in through 
the dusty windows, it was easy to see that 
this had once been a very handsome and 
cheerful room ; but its aspect was now gloomy 
and sad, like the exterior of the old house. 
Hazel still kept fast hold of Love’s hand as the 
two girls stepped about — softly, as if half afraid 
of disturbing the memories which seemed to 
cluster thick about the echoing walls. Beneath 
the mantle, built of some warm-toned Italian 
marble, gaped a fireplace, its fender and fire- 
dogs green with mold. The walls, ceilings and 
floor were of wood, dark and rich in tone be- 
neath the disfiguring dust and cobwebs. Behind 
the gaping doors of some curious old sunken 
65 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


cupboards lurked a piece or two of ancient blue 
cbina, cracked and broken, yet seeming with its 
lovely color to lend the brave cheer of days 
gone by to the lonely room. 

Next to the dining-room was a small morn- 
ing-room opening onto a veranda, which in its 
turn gave upon what had once been a wide ex- 
panse of lawn with shrubbery and flower bor- 
ders. Among the heaps of decaying leaves and 
fallen stems Love could see clusters of the 
adventurous spear-points of daffodils and tulips. 
A straggling hedge of box flanked by low-grow- 
ing evergreens half hid the weedy wilderness of 
the garden. 

“ It must have been pleasant here once,” half 
whispered Hazel ; “ but is n’t it too shivery and 
dreadful now? It ought to be torn down and 
decently buried. I wish it would stop raining, 
so that we could go home.” 

“Let us see the other rooms,” said Love, 
turning away from the window with a sinking 
heart. 

66 


r 


PATRICK HAS AN IDEA 


“Will you tell me, Lovina Gordon, what 
ever made you think of coming to see this mel- 
ancholy ruin?” demanded Hazel, a few minutes 
later, as they completed their tour of the lower 
story. There were two great rooms with fire- 
places on either side of the wide, echoing hall — 
“parlors,” Patrick called them — a library and 
kitchens, the latter a degree more dismal and 
forlorn than the rest, with mouldering heaps of 
ashes in the rust-eaten range, and a litter of 
nondescript rubbish choking the sinks and pan- 
tries, as if the last tenants had yielded to a fit 
of despair in their flitting and abandoned a part 
of their outworn household goods to decay with 
the ruinous house. 

“We could never live here in the world!” 
said Miss Gordon, ignoring the little girl’s ques- 
tion. “The place is plainly ‘impossible/ just 
as Mr. Scudder said.” 

“Live here!” echoed Hazel. “Of course we 
could n’t live here. What ever put such a fancy 
67 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


into your mind ? Mother simply would n’t hear 
of it!” 

“ Hazel,” said Love desperately, “you must 
know some time, and so I will tell you now: 
almost every bit of Uncle Robert’s money is 
gone — swallowed up somehow, I don’t under- 
stand exactly; but it must be true, for Mr. 
Scudder said so, and he is perfectly reliable. 
Uncle always trusted him. We must go some- 
where away from the house in Seventy-fifth 
Street. This place is left, and I thought, I 
hoped — ” 

Something like a sob choked the girl’s voice 
for an instant; but she went on bravely, an- 
swering the frightened question in Hazel’s great 
dark eyes. “We shall get along some way, 
dear. God will help us; only we must not be 
frightened and lose our nerve, whatever we do ; 
for then we cannot think clearly about what is 
best.” 

“ Do you mean that we are dreadfully poor,” 
68 


PATRICK HAS AN IDEA 


faltered tlie child, “and that we must go around 
the rest of our lives in droves and swarms?” 

Love smiled in spite of herself. “ Not in 
very large droves or swarms yet awhile, Hazel, 
dear,” she said gently. “Just mother and you 
and I.” Her voice still trembled a little. “But 
we must keep a strong heart and not be afraid. 
That is worst of all — the being afraid. I am 
going to give you a quotation, Hazel, that I 
want you to remember; for it is true, and it has 
been such a comfort to me : 4 God ’s in his 
heaven ; all ’s well with the world ! ” 

Patrick’s deliberate step was heard echoing 
down the stairs, and the girls furtively wiped 
away two or three tears that would come as 
they turned to meet him. “How is it above, 
Patrick?” asked Miss Gordon anxiously. 

“Not so bad, nor not so good, either,” an- 
swered the old butler cautiously. “ I ’ll have 
a word with thim that ’s had charge here, or my 
name ’s not Patrick Miles ! They ’ve left the 
water in the pipes, for one thing, an’ it ’s froze 
69 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


solid. The tank in the attic has been leaking 
for another, an' there ’s icicles a foot long down 
the walls. Carelessness — carelessness, that ’s 
what ’s been abroad here ; an’ a lot of ne’er-do- 
wells a-living in a house that ’s been good enough 
for Queen Victory in its day. But come up — 
come up an’ see for yourselves ! ” 

The storm was clearing as suddenly as it had 
gathered, and a burst of sunlight shone through 
the broad, low windows of the spacious chamber 
at the head of the winding stair. Both girls 
uttered an exclamation of pleasure at sight of 
this room ; it showed signs of cheerful, human 
occupancy in the perenially fresh blue and white 
paper with which its walls were hung, while the 
open fireplace spoke mutely of comfort and cheer 
in chill days of autumn and winter. 

“ This room would do beautifully for mother,” 
said Hazel — “if she would come,” she added 
dubiously. “And, oh, Love, I have always 
wanted to live in the country ! Do see that big 
orchard out there, and the barns — and is n’t 


70 


PATRICK HAS AN IDEA 


that a greenhouse? I think it will be just 
splendid ! ” 

Love drew her delicate brows together. “ I 
don’t see how — ” she began. 

But Patrick interrupted her, albeit with an 
air of the profoundest respect. “ You ’ll be 
thinking about the lawns an’ the gardens, Miss 
Love,” he said. “You ’ll remember how I was 
telling you that I learnt the gardener’s business 
from my father on this very place ; I have n’t 
lost what was put into me then — some of it with 
a good birch rod, as was right an’ proper. With 
a strong young fellow to give me a lift with the 
ploughing and clearing up, I ’ll soon have the 
old place looking like itself, please God !” 

“ But, Patrick,” said the girl in a low voice, 
“ we shall have so little — so very little to live 
on ; I — we could not pay you. I don’t know 
what we shall do, but we must not go into debt.” 

“Well, Miss Love, I hope you won’t be 
offended when I tell you that I ’ve taken the 
liberty of talking matters over with Eliza Col- 
71 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


lins,” said tlie old man with dignity. “ You 
may be sure, miss, that whatever I say to her 
’ull go no farther in the servant’s hall ; Collins 
is as close-mouthed as I could wish. You may 
be surprised to hear it, miss, but Eliza an’ me 
have kep’ company for a matter of fifteen years 
or more. We ’ve had no call to marry up to 
now, but as we ’ve both laid by a goodish bit of 
money we ’ve decided to join company.” 

“ I ’m sure I wish you joy, Patrick,” said the 
young lady, repressing her wonder at this an- 
nouncement. “ Collins is a good woman, and 
will make you a pleasant home.” 

“ Eliza Collins is all of that, an’ more,” said 
Patrick warmly. Then he shifted from one 
foot to the other as if undecided how to proceed. 
“You know as how me an’ Eliza have always 
made it our home with the Sedgewick family,” 
he began at last, “ ever since we was foolish 
young things with no more sense ’an goslins. 
An’ I for one ain’t prepared at my time of life 
to take up with new friends — if you ’ll excuse 
72 


PATRICK HAS AN IDEA 


the word, miss, from the likes of Patrick Miles 
Eliza Collins is of my mind exactly, an’ I ’ll 
say here an’ now that I would n’t think of marry- 
ing her if she was n’t. But she ’s of my mind 
an’ opinion to a dot, an’ so the two of us ’ud 
like to make our home with you, Miss Love, in 
this ’ere house — which is big enough for us all, 
thank God ! Collins ’ll handle the cooking as 
heretofore, an’ she ’ll easy do the rest that ’s 
wanting inside, for she ’s strong an’ hearty. 
I ’ll manage the outside. An’ to make things 
fair an’ business-like — as I know you ’ll like, 
Miss Love — I ’ll work the land — there ’s about 
ten acres of it — on shares. My half ’ll pay Col- 
lins an’ me, an’ pay us han’some ; your half ’ll 
go far to keep the house going.” 

Patrick paused for breath, and wiped his fore- 
head with a sigh. 

Love’s eyes filled with tears. She drew a 
deep breath. “ Oh, Patrick,” she cried, “ how 
good you are — you and Collins both, to have 
thought of all this ! But will it be right— for 

Wings and Fetters . 7 3 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


you to do it, I mean ? Ought we to accept such 
a sacrifice ; for I know it will be much harder 
than either of you have been used to?” 

“ I give you my word, Miss Love, that I ’m 
tired of city life,” said the old man earnestly. 
“ I ’ve been just hungering to get to work on 
the land. Strange how a man comes to love 
what he once hated. An’ as for Collins — won’t 
she have me ? ” 

Miss Gordon laughed outright. “ She ’ll have 
a treasure,” she cried impulsively. “ But how 
are we going to live in this house, Patrick? It 
is n’t fit for Aunt Margaret to step into.” 

“ It ’s sound and solid and weather-tight, 
miss; I ’ve found that out,” said Patrick. “I ’ve 
been all over the place, an’ there ain’t a leak 
anywhere. It only wants a deal of cleaning an’ 
a paint-pot an’ a paper-hanger. Never fear, 
you won’t know the place once it ’s clean. It 
won’t cost so much, either; I know a bit about 
such work.” 

Altogether it was a cheerful and hopeful little 
74 


PATRICK HAS AN IDEA 


party that reached the city late in the afternoon. 
Hazel’s dark eyes shone bright as stars as she 
darted upstairs to her mother’s room, pausing 
at the threshold with a sudden expressive cloud- 
ing over of her joyous face. The dreaded 
“ brown study” seemed always ready to envelope 
one like a fog in this luxurious chamber. To the 
child’s surprise she beheld her mother fully 
dressed, sitting by the fire. 

“ Oh, mother, dear,” she breathed softly, 
“ how good it seems to see you up once more ! 
Are you better, dearest ? ” 

Mrs. Sedgewick’s pallid face flushed pain- 
fully. She seemed on the verge of tears. 
“Where is Love?” she asked. 

“ Here, Aunt Margaret,” said the young girl, 
who had just entered. Mrs. Sedgewick put an 
arm about each of the girls, and buried her face 
on Hazel’s shoulder. “My poor, poor dears!” 
she said faintly. “ What will become of us ?” 

Love perceived that something unusual had 
happened. That this something had been a visit 
75 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


from the lawyer, Mr. Scudder, she had learned 
from Suzette on entering the house. “ Dear 
Aunt Margaret,” she said gently, “we have 
much to be thankful for.” Then in as few 
words as possible she related their adventures 
of the morning, passing lightly over the sad 
condition of the old house, and dwelling much 
on its spacious, airy rooms, its wide verandas 
and sunny lawns. 

Mrs. Sedgewick listened attentively. Then 
she shook her head. “It would never do in 
the world,” she said plaintively. “We should 
need an army of servants to keep the place in 
proper order. Mr. Scudder advises me to put 
Hazel into some inexpensive boarding-school. 
There are such places, I suppose. You, Love, 
must go back to college, and I — well, it does n’t 
matter much what becomes of me. I can go for 
a while to your great-aunt Sedgewick in Boston. 
I had a letter from her to-day.” 

Hazel uttered a little moan of indignant pro- 
76 


PATRICK HAS AN IDEA 


test. “We just must keep together — we three! ” 
she said. 

And Love echoed her words with an anxious 
pucker of her white forehead. “Dear Aunt 
Margaret,” she added, after a few moments of 
silent reflection, “suppose we try — just try the 
old Staten Island place for the summer. Patrick 
and Collins will go with us; and we shall ar- 
range everything comfortably for you before 
you go over. If we don’t like or can’t manage 
the place, it will be easy to make other plans 
for the winter. Hazel needs a little vacation, I 
think, and I will keep my acquirements brushed 
up by teaching her mornings after we are once 
settled.” 

Mrs. Sedgewick moved in her chair uneasily. 
“ I don’t see how we could keep Patrick and 
Collins,” she said at last. “ They are the most 
expensive servants we have. Collins could com- 
mand almost any situation as cook. That vul- 
gar, pushing Mrs. Van Spader across the street 
actually had the impertinence to send her maid 
77 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


to-day to ask me if I would allow Collins to come 
and talk with her. Our affairs must be in every- 
body’s mouth!” And with this the poor lady 
betrayed signs of a nervous attack, which sent 
Hazel flying for the various smelling-salts, seda- 
tives and what-not prescribed by Mrs. Sedge- 
wick’s fashionable physician. 

Love Gordon sat quite still in her place, keep- 
ing fast hold of the slender white hand, which 
had fastened upon hers with a sort of despera- 
tion. In a calm, cheerful way she explained 
Patrick’s new hopes and plans, which someway 
sounded surprisingly feasible as set forth by the 
young mistress of affairs. “ There will certainly 
be no harm in going there for a time,” she 
concluded. “ There is a great deal of fruit on 
the place, which must be worth something. 
Then we shall have the summer to look about us 
and decide what is best.” 

“I hope we shall stay there forever and a 
day!” cried Hazel. “Such chestnut trees! Such 
a pond for skating! Such fun altogether!” 

78 


PATRICK HAS AN IDEA 


Love shot a warning glance at her cousin, 
which seemed after all unnecessary. Mrs. 
Sedgewick’s pale face seemed to reflect some- 
thing of the glow in the childish dark eyes so 
near her own, as she said with surprising com- 
posure: “Well, it will be a comfort to send 
word to that Van Spader woman that I shall 
retain Collins in my own employ. It was really 
quite clever in Patrick to have thought of it. 
I dare say he will make a very good thing out 
of the place, and no one need know of the ar- 
rangement but ourselves.” After a pause she 
added : “ I think, on the whole, it is the best 
thing we can do. It will look more dignified 
even than to go abroad.” 

A smile and a frown mingled curiously in 
Love Gordon’s brown eyes as she stooped over 
the frail figure in the arm-chair and dropped a 
kiss on the white, unwrinkled forehead. 

79 


CHAPTER V 
THE PUMPKIN COACH 

“ TT1 VERYTHING seems to be coming out 
gi i as if there was a fairy godmother be- 
hind the scenes,” exclaimed Hazel in 
her characteristic fashion one day a few weeks 
later. “ I do believe you have a fairy god- 
mother, Lovina Gordon ; you are just the sort of 
a disguised princess that always has a pumpkin 
coach and a rat coachman waiting to take you 
wherever you want to go.” 

Love shrugged her slim shoulders with a little 
laugh. “ You would have thought me a verit- 
able Cinderella to-day, if you could have seen 
me with my head tied up in a silk handker- 
chief hanging curtains, dusting furniture and 
81 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


making myself generally useful if not orna- 
mental,” she said. 

“ To begin with,” proceeded Hazel, seating 
herself cross-legged like a Turk on the floor of 
their dismantled chamber, “ there was that dear, 
delightful Mrs. de Forrest, who insisted upon 
carrying mother away to Lakewood, where she 
is safely out of all the horrid moving, selling 
and breaking up, which is too much like the 
rack and torture-chamber for one with nerves. 
I ’in glad I have n’t any nerves, Lovina; I never 
mean to grow any ! ” 

“Then there was the equally dear and delight- 
ful Mr. Livingstone-Fish, who bought all of 
Uncle Robert’s collections for ever and ever so 
much more than Mr. Scudder thought they 
would bring,” added Love. 

“Yes, indeed,” assented Hazel. “And, speak- 
ing of Mr. Scudder, who would have dreamed 
that he would suddenly turn into a regular, 
gushing well of kindness ! He ’s been really too 
good to be natural outside a story-book ; what 
82 


THE PUMPKIN COACH 


with bidding in — if that is what you call it — 
mother’s pet furniture and the rugs, and making 
everything so comfortable and easy, I don’t see 
where any particular hardship is coming in, do 
you?” 

Love’s brown eyes were misty as she gazed 
at her cousins sparkling face. “ Everybody has 
been so kind that it makes me cry for pure joy 
to think of it,” she said at length. “All of our 
mountains seem to be sinking away into mole- 
hills.” 

“ It must be the fairy godmother’s magic 
wand,” observed Hazel, reflectively. “ But 
there ’s no prince in the play yet; I ’m looking 
for him to turn up most any day now.” She 
burst into a fit of elfin laughter, which subsided 
before the sweet, serious look in the older girl’s 
face. 

“ The old fairy story is only a fanciful way of 
setting forth an older truth,” Miss Gordon was 
saying dreamily. “ When the wandering prin- 
cess tries to forget herself and what she wants to 
83 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


do that she may help someone else, then the bird 
in the bush, the fish in the sea, or the people 
she meets along the way all help. It is just 
beautiful to have found that out for certain, 
Hazel ! ” 

“ Did you want to do something else, Lovina 
Gordon?” demanded Hazel, shaking the thick, 
curling locks out of her eyes. “ Yes, I know 
you did ! You wanted to go back to college ! ” 

Love Gordon’s sensitive face flushed with 
vexation. Then she laughed. “ If I did, Hazel, 
it was so long ago that I ’ve forgotten it,” she 
said lightly. “ I was only thinking about the 
fairy stories. It is really the most interesting 
study — myths and ethics, I mean. To see how 
they go hand in hand all the way down ancient 
history, like the prince and princess of the story. 
It almost seems as if only children and child- 
like people could see the real, true meaning 
which lies just under the surface of things.” 

“ Spoken like a sophomore again ! ” quoth 
Hazel mockingly, “or like a school-ma’am — 
84 


THE PUMPKIN COACH 


whicli is exactly the same thing. How tiresomely 
well you do remember your literature lectures, 
Lovina. The prince will never find you out if 
you don’t forget them soon ! ” 

Love Gordon looked seriously annoyed. “ I 
do hope, Hazel,” she said with dignity, “ that 
you are not going to grow into one of those 
sharp-tongued, sarcastic girls who make every- 
thing into a joke. It is so hard to say anything 
to such people. Virginia McCloud was just such 
a girl ; to talk with her was like trying to con- 
verse with a bunch of fireworks. She was al- 
ways going off with unexpected little bangs 
and fizzes and sparkles. It was simply tiresome 
after awhile.” 

Hazel looked very sober. “ If I should grow 
tiresome to you, Love,” she said with a little 
quiver in her voice, “I should — well, I should n’t 
want to — ” 

“ Come here, you darling!” commanded Love, 
and hugged the little girl close to her heart. 
“ I ’m tired and stupid to-night after my Cin- 
85 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


derella experiences. That ’s why I was cross ; 
for it is certainly the stupidest thing in the 
world to be cross. There now, forgive me, dear, 
and we ’ll go to bed and to sleep. At exactly 
eight-thirty o’clock to-morrow morning we set 
sail for our island home. Does n’t that sound 
romantic?” 

Hazel had brightened up immediately at the 
mention of the morrow. But Love observed 
the effect of her trenchant little homily for days 
afterward. “ How careful I must be ! ” she said 
to herself with a sigh. “ Uncle Bobert used to 
declare that Hazel was two parts flame and one 
part steel ; and the flame wavers like a candle 
in a draught. Oh, I must be so much wiser 
than I know how to be ! ” Yet in her heart of 
hearts the girl was aware that it was possible to 
be even wiser than one knew, since the desire 
itself was a part of the beautiful, invisible real, 
which lies so near and easy of access to the most 
timid and inexperienced hand. 

It almost seemed to Love Gordon that her 
86 


THE PUMPKIN COACH 


dream had come true that April morning, when, 
with Hazel, she walked slowly along the wind- 
ing road which led to the old house. Masses 
of the pinky-white blossoms of the spring beauty 
mingled with the delicate blue of early violets, 
and the whorls of unfolding ferns pushed boldly 
under their very feet. Overhead myriad boughs, 
illumined with the faint glimmer of newly-awa- 
kened leaves, tossed against the brilliant sky. 
Bluebirds were pouring forth their shy, delicious 
gurgle; meadow-larks called and answered one 
another with wild sweetness ; robins and thrushes 
caroled lustily in the swaying tree-tops. 

Hazel flung her thin arms over her head in 
an ecstasy. “ I must scream once, Lovina Gor- 
don !” she cried. And scream she did, a shrill, 
musical note of joyous abandon, which blended 
harmoniously enough with all the other sounds 
of glowing young life. Then Miss Gordon, who 
was walking sedately as befitted her nineteen 
years, beheld a pair of black-stockinged legs in 
active motion, which carried their owner to the 
87 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


top of the hill in an amazingly short space of 
time. 

Patrick was working industriously in the 
flower borders ; he took off his hat and wiped 
his forehead as Hazel dashed across the lawn 
like a youthful whirlwind. “ Well, Miss Hazel/’ 
he began, looking about him with honest pride, 
“and how does the old place look to you now?” 

“It’s just too beautiful!” cried the little 
girl. “ I can’t find any words to say what I 
think! I just want to dance and make noises!” 

An astonishing change had indeed taken place 
since the stormy March morning when the three 
had made burglarious entrance into the old 
house. It no longer appeared sad and forsaken ; 
but in its coat of fresh paint, its windows clean 
and spotless, revealing glimpses of snowy cur- 
tains within, it looked “delightfully homey,” 
as Love Gordon expressed it; and Patrick 
echoed the words with a happy mist before 
his eyes. 

The neglected lawns had been cleared of 
88 



Wings and Fetters — 2 . 

‘“it's just too beautiful!’ cried the little girl. 


> > 


See />. 88. 













THE PUMPKIN COACH 


weeds and rubbish, and already showed emerald 
stretches of young grass, which Patrick assured 
them would improve with every week of good 
care. The flower beds were gay with clumps 
of daffodils and narcissus, scarlet and yellow 
tulips and patches of the hardy little grape 
hyacinth, which fairly carpeted the ground with 
the deep blue of its modest blossoms. Golden 
masses of forsythia and the dainty pink and 
white of bridal wreath and flowering almond, 
like patches of sun-tinted, fresh-fallen snow, 
glimmered here and there against the sombre 
green of the box hedges. Beyond stretched 
acres of freshly-ploughed garden mould, flanked 
by the peach orchard, rosy with bloom. 

“Of course, Miss Love,” Patrick was explain- 
ing, “ things look a bit rough yet. I have n’t 
touched the outside of the job, so to say. But 
think s’ I, I ’ll get the early vegetables in, an’ 
the lawns an’ flower-beds slicked up, so it ’ll 
look as ’o civilized folks lived here. Then I ’ll 
get down to business in the orchards. There ’s 

6 — Wings and Fetters. 89 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


where the profit ’s to be had. An’ it ’s going 
to be a big year for peaches if we don’t get a 
late frost. There ain’t no peach on earth fit to 
hold a candle to a Staten Island peach, an’ that ’s 
the solemn truth, miss. I ’ve often wondered 
why the farmers ’round here don’t plant ’em 
more.” 

Miss Gordon endeavored to look intelligent. 
But that she was not a practical agriculturist 
was evidenced by her next remark: “Well, 
Patrick,” she said brightly, “ I should plant 
plenty of peach seed if I were you, so that we 
can have quantities of new trees.” 

“ You ’re right, miss, about the new trees,” 
chuckled Patrick; “an’ many’s the time I’ve 
planted the seed, as you call it. The trouble 
with seedlings is that you can’t be sure of thim. 
Plant half a dozen pits of — say, early Crawford, 
an’ mebbe you ’ll get as many new sorts, with 
the chance that most of ’em ’ll be cling-stones, 
an’ not worth the ground they stan’ in. But I 
see Collins is wantin’ you an’ Miss Hazel to 

90 


THE PUMPKIN COACH 


come in the house an’ see what she ’s been 
doing.” 

The old man dropped his spade and accom- 
panied the young lady across the lawn to the 
veranda, where a stout, middle-aged woman in 
a resplendent white apron was waiting to receive 
them. On the way he discoursed volubly con- 
cerning hardy perennials, of which he declared 
there were enough in the garden to stock a nur- 
sery. “ Folks don’t know enough to plant thim 
now-a-days,” he was saying with a show of deep 
feeling. “ They ’ll be fooling every year with 
seeds, or with expensive bedding-out plants they 
buy from the nurserymen in the spring an’ 
throw away in the fall. An’ all the while they 
might have their gardens growing richer an’ 
handsomer every year with iris an’ lilies an’ 
phloxes an’ chrysanthemums an’ garden-helio- 
trope an’ peonies an’ — ” 

“Hear the man now!” cried Collins in her 
rich English voice. “ He ’s gone clean daft 
over the garden, Miss Lovina; but niver a fin- 
9 1 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


ger ’ll he lift to help me inside unless it rains a 
flood!” 

That busy hands had been at work within as 
well as without, the cheerful interior of the 
house plainly showed. The wide rooms fairly 
shone with comfort and cleanliness, and the 
handsome rugs and furniture, saved to the 
family by more than one friend and well-wisher, 
had never showed to better advantage. As 
Love Gordon stood before the window of the 
pleasant chamber set apart for her own, and 
looked away over the budding trees to stretches 
of blue water studded with white sails, and be- 
yond to where the slender spire of a distant 
church pointed to the bluer heavens, her heart 
was full almost to bursting. “ Suppose I had 
been selfish,” she thought, “and had insisted 
upon going back to college; we should never 
have had this beautiful home. I am sure Aunt 
Margaret cannot help being pleased when she 
sees it; and Hazel is as happy as a bird.” The 
conviction was growing in this singular young 
9 2 


THE PUMPKIN COACH 


woman’s mind that to be happy one’s self, and 
to pour that happiness into other lives in lavish 
measure, was better even than an exhaustive 
knowledge of conic sections and chemistry. “If 
I can only hold the home together,” she said to 
herself, “ I can afford to ‘stay a sophomore for- 
ever.’ ” 

The two girls met Mrs. Sedgewick in New 
York the following day. She was looking 
fragile and pretty in her deep mourning, as she 
stepped from the drawing-room car to the plat- 
form, supported by Mrs. de Forrest’s maid. 
“ My poor, dear, homeless girls ! ” she mur- 
mured, as she greeted her daughter and niece ; 
“how I have dreaded this return!” 

“ But, mother, dear ! ” said Hazel eagerly, 
“ only wait till you see how beautiful everything 
is ! It is ever so much nicer than the city 
house.” 

Mrs. Sedgewick sighed profoundly as she 
drew her heavy veil over her face. She made 
no reply. 


93 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


The long ride across the city and bay proved 
even more trying than Love had feared. Both 
girls looked pale and anxious as they supported 
between them the faltering steps of the silent, 
shrouded figure. 

“We ought to have ordered a carriage,” said 
Hazel in a low voice. “ I don’t see a cab any- 
where, and the trolley is late as usual.” 

“ I wish Patrick had come with us,” was Love 
Gordon’s unspoken thought, as she too cast 
questioning eyes about her. 

“ Pardon me,” murmured a voice at her elbow, 
“ but if you are looking for a carriage, I will 
call one.” 

The girl looked up to meet a pair of quiet, 
grey eyes which she vaguely remembered to have 
seen before. A few minutes later and she drew 
a long breath of relief as her precious charge 
sank back on the comfortable cushions of the 
brougham, which had mysteriously appeared in 
answer to the summons of the unknown. 

Mrs. Sedgewick seemed exhausted with fatigue 
94 


THE PUMPKIN COACH 


and emotion, and when the carriage drew up be- 
fore their own door she was half carried into 
the house by Patrick and spirited away to her 
own room by the faithful Collins. Miss Gordon 
presently bethought herself of the cabman, pre- 
sumably waiting for his fare, and hurried down 
to the door, only to see the twinkling wheels of 
the carriage disappearing through the distant 
gateway. The young lady was both puzzled and 
annoyed by this circumstance, but she had little 
time to dwell upon it in the course of the next 
few hours. Once safely ensconced in the pleasant 
room, upon the appointments of which both 
girls had lavished their nicest care, Mrs. Sedge- 
wick had immediately succumbed to one of her 
dreaded nervous attacks, in which she bewailed 
her desolate and forsaken condition. Bereft 
of husband, home, friends, health and property, 
why did she continue to live? she demanded 
of Love, who hung over the frail figure in an 
agony of love and anxiety. Why could she 
95 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


not die and be at rest, since all that made life 
worth living for had been swept away ? 

“ You have me, mother,” sobbed poor little 
Hazel, who had been running about wildly 
with her hat pulled over one eye and her jacket 
still tightly buttoned in quest of hot water-bottles, 
camphor and warm flannels. “You have me, 
mother, and Love and Pat — ” 

The child stopped short, warned by Love’s 
uplifted brows, and turned to the window with 
an aching lump in her slender throat that seemed 
to swell and swell past endurance, as she gazed 
through starting tears at the green lawn and the 
gay, nodding spring flowers in the neat borders. 
She had actually been happy, she told herself in 
a passion of regret; had laughed and danced 
and sung and run races with the grey kitten 
which was at that moment frolicking with some 
whirling leaves in the shrubbery. How could 
she have been so heartless when dear, dear daddy 
was gone ? 

“ But perhaps dear daddy has n’t gone so 

96 


THE PUMPKIN COACH 

very far,” said Love, wlien at bedtime that 
night the forlorn little figure crept in to pour out 
her remorseful thoughts. “Don't you remem- 
ber, dear, that ‘Heaven lies about us in our in- 
fancy,' and why should it not always be near? 
I have been so glad to see you happy; and so, 
I am sure, has dear daddy, who is so happy 
himself that he wants nothing else than to see 
us cheerful and busy, doing with our might what 
our hands find to do. Let me read you a good- 
night chapter out of the best of all the books, 
then you shall cuddle into bed with me and go 
to sleep. We must try and help mother to find 
the sunshine, too." 

97 





/ 


I 






/ 








CHAPTER VI 
hazel’s discovery 

“ /\H, Love, do come out here a minute,” 
1 I cried Hazel, thrusting her curly head 
in at an ©pen window one bright 
morning a week later; “I want you to see the 
very oddest thing ! ” She pointed up to one of 
the pointed gables, low-dropping over the quaint 
octagonal windows of the attic story. 

“ What is it?” said Love, staring up vaguely 
at the gray old roof, as she shielded her eyes 
from the downpouring flood of May sunshine. 

“ Bees ! ” shouted the little girl excitedly. 
“ Don’t you see them flying about the roof, and 
going in and out under the eaves ? ” 

“ Bees ? ” repeated Miss Gordon wonderingly. 
“How can bees be up there?” 

L.ofC. 99 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


“ They ’re using our house for a hive ! ” 
laughed Hazel. “ Patrick says there’s probably 
a roof of honey over the attic.” 

The young lady turned for a confirmation of 
this curious statement to Patrick, who leaned on 
the handle of his lawn-mower, his face one broad 
smile of enjoyment. “ It ’s a fact, Miss Love,” 
he said. “ I remember that there used to be bees 
on the old place when I was a boy. There was 
a whole row of hives east of the greenhouse 
yonder, an’ many ’s the idle minute I ’ve spent 
watching the little rascals coming in loaded with 
pollen. I don’t know who made ’way with the 
hives, nor when they done it; but there ain’t a 
sign of tliim about the place now. The bees 
must have stood by their home, though, an’ 
took to the house when the family moved out ; 
for thim ’s the real old stock — yellow Italians, 
the very best of all the bees. I ’ve noticed thim 
’round the fruit trees the last week or more; but 
I only just found out where they was hiving.” 

Love watched the gable attentively for a mo- 


100 


HAZEL’S DISCOVERY 


ment, and there, sure enough, were myriads of 
darting flecks coming and going in the bright 
air. “Can we get the honey?” she asked in 
the practical tone of a housekeeper. 

“Not without tearing up the roof from the 
outsied, or breaking away the lath and plaster 
from the attic chamber,” said the old man, 
shaking his head. “ They ’ye been cunning in 
their settling — thim bees — an’ picked the one 
place where we can’t get at thim. I ’ve been up 
there, an’ looked the attic over pretty careful. 
If they ’d gone the other side, we could ha’ got 
thim easy by just taking off the boards.” 

“ I wish they were down here in a hive,” said 
Hazel. “ I should like to see them coming in 
with pollen.” 

“ You would that, Miss Hazel, dear,” agreed 
Patrick. “ Mebbe we ’ll ketch thim swarming 
before long, if we watch thim good ; then we ’ll 
take the swarm.” The rattle and whirr of the 
mowing machine drowned his last words as he 


IOI 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


moved slowly away, leaving a wake of fragrant 
young grass blades behind him. 

Hazel appeared to be deep in meditation at 
luncheon time. “ I was thinking about the 
swarm,” she explained. “ Do you know how a 
swarm looks, Love?” 

Miss Gordon confessed that she had never 
seen one, but hazarded an opinion based on her 
fund of general information, that the bees gene- 
rally formed a bunch or cluster upon some tree 
or shrub. 

“ But why should they do that, Lovina Gor- 
don?” persisted the little girl. “What is the 
sense of forming a bunch or cluster when all 
they want is a new place to live? I should 
think the older bees would find out just where 
they were going to move; then the others could 
just fly there and go in.” 

“ You ’ll have to ask the queen bee for in- 
formation on that point, I imagine,” said Miss 
Gordon, laughing. “ She is the most important 


102 


HAZEL’S DISCOVERY 


personage in the hive, and governs devoted sub- 
jects.” 

The late-starting leaves on the big catalpa 
tree back of the house were “as big as squirrel’s 
ears,” and Patrick was accordingly planting his 
sweet corn before Hazel's observations of the 
lofty honey-makers resulted in an announcement 
which roused even Mrs. Sedgewick from her sad 
apathy. , 

Love Gordon had been reading aloud to the 
invalid, her voice sinking to a soft murmur of 
sound as she perceived the white lids drooping 
over the listener's eyes. She was on the point 
of closing the volume that she might steal quietly 
away to a neglected task below, when the sound 
of Hazel's rapid feet on the stairs presaged her 
impetuous entrance into her mother's room. 

“Oh, mother, dear!” she cried, “I do hope I 
have n't waked you up — if you were going to 
sleep; but please look out of the window, and 
you too, Lovina Gordon ! I do believe there is 
a swarm of bees in the tree ! ” 

103 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


“A swarm of bees?” repeated Mrs. Sedgewiek 
wonderingly. “ Where did they come from?” 

“ Out of the roof,” cried Hazel. “ I saw lots 
of them flying about this morning, and hanging 
in little bunches on the eaves. Then bye-and- 
bye they all flew up in a cloud, and buzzed 
about in the big tree. Now they look just like 
a brown bag! Do come down, Love, and help 
get them!” She was gone again in a veritable 
whirl of curling locks and flying skirts before 
her cousin could answer. 

“What an excitable child she is!” observed 
Mrs. Sedgewiek in an aggrieved voice. “ If I only 
had a tithe of her health and good spirits ! But 
Hazel was never like me in her organization in 
the least particular.” She walked to the win- 
dow as she spoke and languidly looked out. 
“ There is something very singular in the 
tree,” she said with some increase of anima- 
tion. “ See, my dear, hanging from the bough 
right opposite the window! I wonder if it can 
be possible that the child is right?” 


104 


HAZEL’S DISCOVERY 


" It is certainly a swarm of bees,” said Love, 
looking over her aunt’s shoulder. “What a 
curious sight ! ” 

And a curious sight it was. The bees hung 
in a great golden-brown cluster from one of the 
giant branches of the catalpa, their wings and 
bodies glistening dully in the sunshine as they 
crawled slowly about the surface of the living 
ball. Now and then numbers of them were 
seen to dart away in different directions, when 
the whole cluster swayed and heaved as if about 
to fall apart. 

“Aren’t you ever coming down, Love?” 
shouted Hazel from the foot of the tree. “Oh, 
we must get them ! Just think what fun it will 
be to have bees of our very own, and watch 
them making honey ! Do come down — ■ 
quick!” 

Miss Gordon’s imagination was almost as 
much stirred as Hazel’s at sight of all this 
winged wealth, waiting, as it were, to be gathered. 
“I wish we could get them,” she said breathlessly 

7 — Wings and Fetters. IOK 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


as she reached the little girl’s side. “ Where is 
Patrick ? ” 

“ More ’s the pity, Miss Love/’ chimed in 
Collins regretfully, “ but he ’s gone to town not 
an hour since to fetch his tomato and cauliflower 
plants.” 

Mrs. Miles had thrown her apron over her 
head and was staring with all her blue eyes at 
the strange sight in the tree. 

“ Pees, vas it ? ” said a rumbling voice, the 
note of interrogation ending in a chuckling 
laugh. “ Yell, you haf von pig job to get dem, 
I pet!” 

“Ah, Lener,”said Collins, resuming her wonted 
air of severe dignity as she turned to greet the 
newcomer. 

He was a broad, red-faced German, and the 
reason of his appearance was evident in the 
market-basket of early strawberries lie carried 
on his arm. “You ’ll pe vantin’ a guart or so 
— eh ? An’ I ’ve ferry goot salads — cress, let- 
tuce, spinach — on de vagon.” 

106 


HAZEL’S DISCOVERY 


“ Can you tell me how to get those bees, Mr. 
Vegetable-man ?” said Hazel politely. “We 
want them very much. ,, 

“ Ho-ho ! ” laughed the worthy German. 
“I ’ll pet you vant dem ! I don’ know zo ferry 
much ’pout pees,” he went on; “but you vill liaf 
a — vat you call him — a hive, nicht wahr ? An’ 
some von climb up de tree un’ saw der limb, un’ 
shake dem in der hive; den you liaf dem safe.” 

“ Yes, but we have n’t any hive,” said Hazel 
mournfully. “And Patrick has gone away.” 

“ I guess you porrow a hive all right,” said 
Lener hopefully. “ Mister Lough, he is a ferry 
goot, kind man, un’ he keep pees. He vill lend 
you a hive, I pet.” 

“ Where does he live ? ” demanded Hazel. “ I 
shall go and ask him this minute ! ” 

“Just the next house pelow ; Mr. Lough he 
lives dere. You ask him. I ’ll pet you vill 
get dem, if dey don’t fly away.” 

“I shall go this minute and ask him,” re- 
peated the little girl. Then she glanced up 
107 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


again into the tree. “ Somebody ought to stay 
and watch them ; can’t you, Collins ? ” 

“ Bless you, child, I ’ve got to go in this 
minute ! ” cried Collins with a fine show of in- 
dignation. “ I ’ve got more to do than I ’d 
have ban’s for if I could be makin’ myself into 
three women ! ” 

“ You haf to vatch dem pees, sure,” put in 
the German, wagging his head warningly; 
“ sometimes dey hangs fer two — t’ree days, jus’ 
like dat. But ven de vether is goot dey flies off 
in von hour, maype. You go upstairs, missy, 
un’ trow vaser on dem ; vet dem down goot, den 
dey tink it rain, un’ dey hang dere.” 

“ Will you go and ask that man for the hive, 
Love ? Please, go — please ! I do want to get 
them,” begged Hazel in a fever of excitement. 
“ I ’ll go up in mother’s room and throw water 
at them.” 

“ I don’t see how we could get them even if 
we have the hive,” began Love ; but, at sight 
of the big tears starting in Hazel’s brown eyes, 
108 


HAZEL’S DISCOVERY 


she turned and ran lightly away toward the 
house which the obliging vegetable man pointed 
out to her. 

“Jus’ go down tro de leedle gate dere,” he 
said encouragingly, “ un* you comes to Mister 
Lough’s house, in der trees dere. He is a goot 
man, un’ ferry kind. I pet he gets dem pees fer 
you. You jus’ dell him I send you.” 

It was a seductive little path winding about 
among giant tree-boles and disappearing behind 
a group of low-growing evergreens, which hid 
all but the red roof and clustered chimneys of 
the house from view. Miss Gordon had specu- 
lated vaguely as to who the neighbor might be 
whose grounds bordered upon their own ; ap- 
parently no one but the postman trod the nar- 
row path which led through the little gate afore- 
mentioned. Love drew a pleasing mental pic- 
ture of “the goot Mister Lough” as she hurried 
along, her skirts brushing the fragrant dew 
from clustered ferns and patches of the snowy 
lily of the valley, which had run wild under the 
109 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


big chestnuts. She was bareheaded, and the May 
wind ruffled her brown hair at its own sweet 
will, leaving a sparkle in her eyes and a faint 
flush on her cheeks, which matched the aj)ple- 
blossoms just bursting into bloom. 

Bees? Yes; “ the goot Mister Lough” cer- 
tainly possessed them, for here on the sunny 
terrace behind the house were rows of hives 
facing the south, every one manifestly the cen- 
ter of active business operations. The girl 
paused a moment, and watched the golden 
laborers coming and going with ceaseless energy. 
Then she hurried on with fresh courage to pre- 
fer her request. She had determined that Mr. 
Lough was an elderly man of benignant aspect. 
The house was undoubtedly old ; it was also 
very still — strangely still, she thought, as she 
stepped lightly upon a sunny little porch, whose 
green Dutch door, open at the top, revealed a 
glimpse of a wide, old-fashioned hall. There 
was a curious brass knocker on the door, repre- 
senting a gorgon with the most jovial expression 


no 


HAZEL’S DISCOVERY 


of countenance. Love lifted it gently and tapped 
once — twice — thrice. 

A middle-aged man-servant started up from 
somewhere in the shadowy hall. He looked 
(Love thought) excessively surprised as he 
stared out of the Dutch door. “ ‘ Does Mr. 
Lough live here?” she asked. “May — I — see 
him — for just a moment?” she added, in an 
uncomfortable flutter of apprehension and em- 
barrassment, as the wonder in the elderly man- 
servant’s eyes widened them to their utmost. 
“ I am sure he is an old man — a nice, good old 
man,” she said to herself. “ Only nice, good 
old men keep bees.” She was reading his name 
on the modest door-plate, as she thus re-assured 
herself. The name sounded strong and pleas- 
ant — John Graham Lough. But she was never- 
theless aware by this time that she had forgotten 
her hat, and that the wind had taken liberties 
with her hair. She had three-quarters of a 
mind to run away while she waited for the 
wide-eyed man to inform his master of her 


hi 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


presence, and flushed a frightened rose all over 
her face when the closed door suddenly opened, 
and a man, evidently the master, and — well, 
certainly not the old man she had pictured to 
herself as the benign keeper of the bees — ap- 
peared on the threshold. 

A flash of recognition in the grey eyes deep- 
ened her embarrassment. “Oh, did — did you — ” 
she began, and stopped short, ready to cry with 
vexation. 

“This is Miss Gordon, is it not?” he was 
saying easily. “ I was so glad to be of service 
to you that day. I had intended giving myself 
the pleasure of calling before this ; but I was 
told that Mrs. Sedgewick was ill — too ill to 
receive visitors.” 

“ But I did n’t know that it was you — that is, 
that you lived here,” faltered Love, miserably 
conscious that the keen grey eyes were looking 
quietly at her breeze-blown hair and frightened, 
flushed face. She pulled herself together with 
a great effort. “ I have often wanted to thank 


1 1 2 


HAZEL’S DISCOVERY 


you, though. It was your carriage, was it 
not?” 

“ I did n’t care to ride that day,” he said 
carelessly. “ I had intended to send Parker 
home without me.” He had stepped out and 
was standing by her side now. Love noticed, in 
a lightning glance, that he carried a fountain 
pen between the fingers of his right hand. 

“I must apologize for intruding,” she said 
with dignity. “I think our heads were all 
turned a little this morning with the bees. The 
vegetable man told me that you were a good, 
kind man and kept bees. There is a swarm 
hanging in the tree behind our house, and my 
little cousin, Hazel, insisted that I should come 
over and borrow a hive.” 

She looked the picture of contrition, as she 
glanced again at the pen in the strong, brown 
fingers. Somehow that pen linked itself of a sud- 
den with the pleasant-sounding name on the door- 
plate. “ Could it be?” she asked herself with 
a certain awe, as she remembered the charming 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


essays, illustrated with the daintiest of drawings 
of birds, flowers and bees, which she had read 
with increasing delight the winter before. 

“ Oh, I am not at all busy,” he was saying 
with a genial laugh, which lighted up the grey 
eyes amazingly. “ I would n’t miss such a lark 
with the bees for worlds. I am infinitely obliged 
to old Lener for giving me such a good charac- 
ter.” He turned to the elderly man-servant, 
who still wore the expression of extreme aston- 
ishment which Love’s sudden appearance had 
caused. “ Fetch a hive from the stable loft, 
Thomson, and hand me my veil and gloves, will 
you ? I shall want a few frames of brood.” 

Love’s eyes were full of gratitude as she sped 
away to assure Hazel of the success of her mis- 
sion. Her face was still rosy with embarrass- 
ment, and she shrugged her shoulders with a 
little laugh. “ He will think me a wild country 
girl,” she said to herself. “ But never mind ; 
Hazel will have her bees.” 


CHAPTER VII 


THE BEE MASTER 

H AZEL looked a picture of the deepest woe 
as she came running to meet her cousin. 
“ Oh, Love/’ she cried breathlessly, “ I 
went up in mother’s room and threw water on 
those bees. It was awfully hard work, and I 
spilled it all over the floor, but mother did n’t 
scold a bit. I got two or three big splashes on 
them — the bees, I mean ; and then little bunches 
of them began to tumble off in the queerest way, 
but I kept right on throwing as hard as I could. 
They must have thought it was a pretty big 
storm, for all of a sudden, while I was gone for 
more water, I heard mother call ; I ran as fast as 
I could, but it was too late — they were all flying 
up in the air.” 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


“ Then they are gone ! ” exclaimed Miss Gor- 
don, pausing irresolutely. “ I must go back 
and tell Mr. Lougli not to bring the hive. I 
know I disturbed him at his work. Only think, 
Hazel, he is John Graham Lough — the one that 
wrote ‘The Heart of Wild Folk/ Do you re- 
member my reading it to you last winter ? ” 

“ Truly ?” 

“ Yes, I am quite sure of it. He was busy 
writing, I fear, when I knocked. I supposed 
him to be some nice, friendly old farmer from 
the way the vegetable man spoke of him/ , 

“And you talked with him, Lovina Gordon, 
and asked him to bring a hive for our bees ? ” 
cried the little girl. “ How perfectly splendid 
that is ! I want to see him, too. Everything 
always happens to you, Love, just because you 
are a fairy princess. Besides, the bees have n't 
really gone away ; they ’re down the chimney. 
I suppose they went in to get out of ‘de vetter/ 
as that darling old German would say. Only 
fancy, if it had n’t been for him we would never — 
1 16 


THE BEE MASTER 


But here he comes now with a man carrying 
a hive. You must introduce me, Love, and I 
shall tell him I have read every one of his 
lovely stories ! ” 

“ No — no, Hazel/’ said Miss Gordon in a low 
but energetic tone. “You must wait until — 
well, at least until he calls, and we have been 
properly introduced.” And again the young 
lady’s cheeks took on the delicate hue of the 
apple-buds overhead. 

But Hazel was in the wildest spirits, and was 
not to be curbed by any imaginary reins of pro- 
priety. “Properly introduced!” she repeated, 
tossing the wild, elfin locks out of her eyes. 
“ You ’ve made the first call, Lovina Gordon, 
please remember that!” 

“I shall not be likely to forget it, I am 
afraid,” murmured the girl, turning to greet the 
rescuer of vagrant swarms, who now approached 
them, carrying his bee-veil in one hand and in 
the other a curious-looking implement from 
which issued a pungent smoke. “ I am afraid 
117 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


I have put you to a great deal of trouble, Mr. 
Lough, and for no purpose,” she said quietly, 
adding, “ This is my cousin, Hazel Sedgewick, 
and she tells me the bees have flown while I 
was gone.” 

Mr. Lough acknowledged the introduction 
with a bow and a smile, which completely and 
for all time won for him the devoted allegiance 
of the little girl. “ Has the swarm really gone?” 
he asked, a distinctly disappointed expression 
creeping over his handsome face. “ Now, what 
a pity ! If you had only wet them down a bit 
with the hose.” 

Hazel had been gazing at the speaker with 
a rapt, awed expression of countenance, which 
brought an irrepressible smile to Love’s eyes. 
She found her tongue at this juncture. “ I did 
throw water on them,” she said ; “ I threw Col- 
lins’ biggest saucepan full as fast as I could fill 
it, and two or three times I hit them — smack ! 
They thought it was storming too hard, I guess, 
for they went down the chimney.” 

1 18 


THE BEE MASTER 


“All — ha!” exclaimed Mr. Lougli, with an 
amused laugh at this frank statement. “But 
they want just a gentle shower to keep them 
quiet. They are very wise people — the bees ; 
their couriers took alarm at once, and hurried 
their queen out of harm’s way. Down the chim- 
ney, you say ? Which chimney ? Perhaps we 
can get them, after all.” 

Hazel pointed out the highest chimney of 
them all, at the top of one of the grey old 
gables. “They are roof bees, you know,” she 
explained, her fear of the author seeming to 
have suddenly evaporated under the light of his 
kindly eyes. “ Our whole house is probably 
roofed with honey; only we can’t get it. But I 
think it is a nice thought, anyway. I like to 
lie in bed stormy nights and think of the bees 
overhead all snug in their great, white, delicious 
combs.” 

Mr. Lough seemed very much interested in 
the little girl’s fanciful thoughts, for he walked 
slowly along at her side, carelessly dangling 


WINGS AND FETTERS 

“ tlie smoker,” as he called it, and asked many 
questions about the curious roof-dwellers. “ I 
thought at first that you had found one of my 
run-away swarms,” he said ; “ but this is un- 
doubtedly an overflow from the giant colony in 
the roof.” 

“Was that the reason you were so willing to 
come?” demanded Hazel, eyeing him with sud- 
den suspicion. “ Did you mean to take them 
home with you?” 

Mr. Lough laughingly disclaimed any such 
intention. “Run-away swarms are always treas- 
ure trove,” he added. “ That was the way I 
started my apiary. I was walking out in my 
garden one morning, and almost stumbled into 
a great swarm which had settled on a rose-bush 
in full bloom, weighing it quite to the ground. 
It was a pretty sight, I assure you, though not 
half so interesting as your roof colony.” 

“ Where did you get your hive ? ” asked 
Hazel, with breathless interest. 

“ I had n’t one, of course,” he said. “ One is 


120 


THT BEE MASTER - 


rarely ready for Dame Fortune when she drops 
a plum into one’s lap. So I took — what do you 
suppose? — a nail-keg, washed it well with mo- 
lasses and water, and shook the swarm off the 
rose-bush into it. The queen took kindly to 
her odd quarters, and stayed there contentedly 
enough ; for it was really not unlike the hollow 
tree-trunk, which is, after all, the home every 
swarm is looking for.” 

“Just think of that, Love,” said the little 
girl, turning with a disappointed air to her 
cousin. “ We might have taken a nail-keg ; 
Patrick has lots of them to put his bulbs in. 
We could have climbed up in the tree and made 
those bees go in; don’t you think so?” 

Love Gordon shook her head with an answer- 
ing flash of amusement to that which shone in 
the grey eyes. “I am afraid the nail-keg and 
the bees combined would have presented some 
insuperable difficulties in the branches of that 
catalpa,” she said. 

“ I should have tried , anyway, Lovina Gor- 

6 — Wings and Fetters. 


121 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


don,’ , said Hazel witli spirit. “ You know you 
have told me over and over again that genius is 
often only great determination to try. I should 
certainly have tried, if I had only thought of it. 
So simple, too — a nail-keg! ” 

“ But, Miss Hazel,” interposed Mr. Lough, 
“ I feel obliged to call your attention to the fact 
that a swarm of bees is in reality an army of 
Amazons, each warrior armed with a sword 
sharper than any Damascus blade that was ever 
forged, and ready to die for her beloved queen. 
This curious little apparatus, which belches 
smoke when I press the bellows, is one of my 
weapons of defence, and furthermore I retire 
behind an armor of gauze like this, which is 
nevertheless sword-proof — since the Amazons 
carry short weapons. Then I am ready to face 
the army. Do you see?” 

“ Do you mean that they would have stung 
me?” 

“Undoubtedly,” said the experienced bee- 
keeper gravely. “ Though many professional 


122 


THE BEE MASTER 


apiarists go fearlessly among tlieir bees, and 
handle tlieir swarms without protection, I should 
advise you to begin as I did not, and avoid 
several hundred sword-thrusts from the indig- 
nant warriors, who abhor the inexperience and 
frightened movements of a novice.” 

Hazel drew a deep breath of enjoyment. “ It 
is going to be the most interesting thing,” she 
exclaimed. “I don't think I should mind being 
stung a few times if we only get them. Do 
you suppose we can get them ?” 

“ I will do my best — if Miss Gordon will per- 
mit me to take a great liberty,” said Mr. Lough, 
bowing to the young lady. “ I shall be obliged 
to go up on the roof by way of the attic. Thom- 
son will go with me to carry the hive.” 

“I fear we are putting you to entirely too 
much trouble,” began Miss Gordon hesitat- 
iugly. 

“ Oh, Love, don’t say that ! ” cried the little 
girl beseechingly. “ He does want to get that 
swarm; don’t you truly want to get it, Mr. 

123 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


Lougli? If you don’t, just lend me that funny 
smoking thing and the veil and I will — ” 

“ Hazel ! ” syllabled Miss Gordon, w T itli a 
warning glance, before which the child’s spark- 
ling eyes sank with some embarrassment. 

“ I did n’t mean to be rude,” she said faintly ; 
“but, oh, I do want those bees!” 

Mr. Lough smiled encouragingly at the little 
girl. “ You have the true bee-keeper’s spirit,” 
he said kindly. “And I assure you, Miss Gor- 
don, that I shall feel greatly disappointed if I 
do not succeed in hiving that swarm. I am 
not sure that I shall succeed, for I see that the 
workers are already busy, and it is not easy to 
entice a swarm which fancies itself nicely settled. 
But I propose to appeal to the cupidity of the 
queen as well as of her workers. Would 
you like to see the inducement I shall hold 
out ? ” 

He motioned to his man as he spoke, who 
set down at their feet the oblong, wooden box 
he was carrying. “ This is the hive,” he was 


124 


THE BEE MASTER ✓ 


beginning, when all three looked up at sound 
of a gentle, hesitating footfall. 

“Why, mother, dearest ! ” cried Hazel, voicing 
the astonishment which Love endeavored to re- 
press as she presented Mr. Lough. 

He cheerfully congratulated the lady on being 
sufficiently recovered to be out in the glorious 
May weather, which was, as he expressed it, “the 
crest of the year.” 

Mrs. Sedgewick smiled, and replied with all 
her old-time grace that she really could not resist 
the temptation to come out and see what was 
going on. “ We were quite startled out of our 
usual routine this morning by the strange sight 
in our tree-top,” she added. 

Love chanted a jubilate in her heart of hearts 
as she gazed at the faint-smiling lips of the 
speaker. Then, quite involuntarily, her brown 
eyes turned with a grateful look upon the centre 
of their little group. 

John Lough both saw and understood the 
two glances, and instantly there sprang up in his 
125 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


heart a knightly desire to help this brave, young 
burden-bearer, of whose endeavors he had al- 
ready heard somewhat from a mutual acquaint- 
ance. “ I was about to show these young ladies 
the incentive to further change of residence 
which I shall shortly hold out to the homeless 
queen and her nation,” he said, addressing him- 
self to Mrs. Sedgewick. “This hive, as you 
see, is simply a covered box of somewhat singular 
construction, since it contains eight of these 
hanging frames.” 

He lifted out of the uncovered hive an ob- 
long square of discolored honeycomb, enclosed 
in a narrow strip of wood. “ This is a nursery, 
partly filled with bee-babies,” he went on; 
“ there is also enough honey stored about the 
edges to tempt a hungry swarm thrown sud- 
denly upon its own resources. Do you see these 
tiny, white larvae, each in its own nest, Mrs. 
Sedgewick ?” 

“ How very curious and interesting ! ” said 
the lady, looking less and less like an invalid, 

126 


THE BEE MASTER 


as a faint color rose in her cheeks. “I am sure 
I never knew anything about bees except that 
they made honey.” Then she added easily 
what Hazel had longed to say for the last half 
hour. “ I have taken the very greatest pleasure 
in reading your recent essays, Mr. Lough. I be- 
lieve we have a mutual friend in Mrs. de For- 
rest ; she told me some time ago that you were 
living on Staten Island, but I had no idea that 
you were to be our neighbor.’’ 

“ We are most happily met,” said the young 
man, whose manner had stiffened slightly at the 
mention of his authorship, as though the subject 
were distasteful to him. “ I learned of your 
nearness only a few days since, and was about 
to give myself the pleasure of making your 
acquaintance.” 

“ But this is ever so much nicer,” put in the 
irrepressible Hazel, whose eyes had been wan- 
dering during this exchange of civilities between 
the empty hive and the distant chimney, about 
whose top golden-brown soecks were beginning 
127 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


to fly busily. “If you had come to make a prim 
pasteboard call, I might not have seen you at 
all!” 

Mrs. Sedgewick looked shocked; but John 
Lough’s grey eyes twinkled pleasantly as he 
looked down into the glowing little face up- 
turned to his. “ I think it is ever so much 
nicer, too,” he said decidedly. “ Pasteboard 
calls, Miss Hazel, are my pet abomination. And 
now, if you will kindly show me the way to the 
attic — you will permit me, Mrs. Sedgewick, in 
the interests of bee-culture — I will pay my 
respects to the royal lady in the chimney.” 

Ten minutes later the two men could be seen 
making their way cautiously across the steep 
roofs to the populous chimney. The man, 
Thomson, had also assumed the defensive armor 
worn by his master. Their operations were 
brief, and to the two girls watching from the 
ground highly mysterious. 

“ I don’t believe he can get them, after all,” 
cried Hazel in a disappointed tone. “ They ’ve 
128 


THE BEE MASTER 


only set that box on top of the chimney, and 
now they ’re coming away!” 

“ Would n’t the queen go in?” she inquired 
dolefully, when Mr. Lough rejoined them, look- 
ing quite satisfied with his adventure. 

“ That remains to be seen,” he replied. “ I 
have simply removed the bottom-board of the 
hive and set it over the mouth of the chimney. 
In order to get out at all, the bees will be forced 
to come and go through the proper entrance. 
The chances are that the queen, who will at 
once be informed of the brood-chamber above 
by her attendants, will crawl up into the hive 
and begin laying her eggs in the vacant cells. 
The whole swarm will follow as a matter of 
course, and then we shall have them — and a 
finer swarm one seldom sees. They are pure 
Italian, and there must be a half bushel of 
them.” 

“ Do they measure bees by the bushel ? ” 
laughed the little girl. 

“ Sometimes,” said John Lough, his eyes 


129 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


laughing back at her, though his face was quite 
sober — which was a way that he had, as she 
soon discovered. “I think we may safely set 
down your swarm, Miss Hazel, as worth the 
proverbial load of hay.” 

Both girls looked inquiringly at him. 

“ You have surely heard the old Mother 
Goose rhyme,” he said pleasantly. “‘A swarm 
of bees in May is worth a load of hay ; a swarm 
of bees in June is worth a silver spoon; a swarm 
of bees in July is not worth a fly/ which simply 
means that there will be little or no honey 
made that season. In the days when that 
rhyme was written bee-keepers knew no better 
than to smother their swarms with sulphur 
fumes in the autumn, and so of course a swarm 
which had barely established itself was scarce 
worth the killing.” 

“What a cruel thing to do!” cried Love 
Gordon, with a fine show of indignation. “ I 
should never want any honey if I had to do 
wholesale murder to get it ! ” 

130 


THE BEE MASTER 


“You like chicken, Lovina Gordon,” said 
Hazel incisively. “And only this morning you 
were saying how delicious the ham was ! ” 

The young lady blushed ; then her laugh 
mingled with John Lough’s. “ Ah, that is one 
of the weak points in our civilization,” he said 
gravely. “I fancy few of us would care for 
much on our tables that we find very palatable 
if we were obliged to personally assist at the 
preceding sacrifice. But to return — not to our 
muttons, but to our bees. I shall come back to 
investigate the conditions on the roof the day 
after to-morrow. If I find, as I fully expect, 
that the swarm has established itself in the hive, 
I shall then slip the bottom-board into place, 
close up the entrance with a strip of wire net- 
ting, and Thomson will lower it to the ground 
by means of a rope and a sailor’s hitch. The 
rest is a serial story, as you will find. And I 
think you will tell me later that it is the most 
interesting one you ever read.” 

Mrs. Sedgewick had retreated to the sunny 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


veranda, where Collins had made her comforta- 
ble with a steamer-chair and a plenitude of 
wraps. “ My nerves are so completely shattered 
that I seldom receive visitors/’ she said plain- 
tively to the young man when he came to take 
his leave of her; “but I had already determined 
to make an exception of you, dear Mr. Lough. 
I do hope you have not completely tired your- 
self out in gratifying the whim of my little wild 
girl here.” 

John Lough assured her that he had taken 
the keenest pleasure in the morning’s adventure. 
He added that he was completely at their ser- 
vice in any and all ways. Then he strode away 
through the little gate, and shortly disappeared 
behind the shrubbery. 

“I think he is just too lovely for anything!” 
sighed Hazel rapturously — a remark which 
drew a well -merited reproof from her cousin. 

“You might say that Mr. Lough has been 
very kind, and that you like him exceedingly,” 
said Miss Gordon, with quite the air of an 

132 


THE BEE MASTER 


experienced governess ; “ but the expression, 
‘just too lovely for anything/ is little short of 
slang, and really vulgar.” 

“ Well, I know he thought you were just 
lovely enough for something,” retorted her 
pupil, with a disrespectful giggle, which had 
the effect of rousing Mrs. Sedgewick to the 
point of delivering quite a comprehensive lec- 
ture on etiquette in general, and the proper 
conduct of little girls in particular, to which 
both teacher and pupil listened with due atten- 
tion. 

i33 





CHAPTER VIII 


WINGED AMAZONS 

S UBSEQUENT events proved the truth of 
John Lough’s cheerful predictions con- 
cerning the bees. There was a curious 
sight one evening after sunset when the hive, 
bound about with rope, was lowered carefully 
to the ground. Patrick was on hand to assist 
in the important task, and he was almost as de- 
lighted as Hazel when the hive was safely set 
on a sunny slope already sprinkled with snowy 
clover-blooms. 

“ Thim ’s the flowers they like best of all,” 
said Patrick with enthusiasm, “an’ the tulip- 
trees are all in blow, besides ; there ’ll be no 
lack of work for the little rascals, come 
mornin’.’ , 


i35 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


“But won’t they lose their way, being put 
here when they he all asleep?” asked Hazel 
anxiously. 

“They are not asleep,” said John Lough. 
“Just listen a minute and you will hear them 
humming.” 

“ I hear them ! ” cried the little girl ex- 
citedly. “ Do come and listen, Love !” 

John Lough fancied that the girlish face 
which bent toward the hive in obedience to this 
summons was more serious and pallid than he 
remembered it. “ How is Mrs. Sedgewick this 
evening?” he asked. 

“Aunt Margaret is feeling better now,” said 
Miss Gordon, glancing up at him gravely. “She 
has been very unhappy all day, and that made 
her ill after a while.” 

“ Would she enjoy driving about the country 
these beautiful mornings?” he asked impul- 
sively. “If you think she would, do let me send 
the carriage around. It would be a real favor,” 
he added quickly, as he noticed the flush that 

136 


WINGED AMAZONS 


mantled the girl’s clieek. “ I infinitely prefer 
walking such weather as this, and the horses 
often suffer for want of exercise. You will won- 
der why I keep them, perhaps,” he went on after 
a pause. “They were mother’s, and she was 
fond of them. She died last fall.” 

“ Yes, I know,” said Love in a low voice. 
“Aunt Margaret has told me of — of Mrs. Lough. 
Mrs. de Forest often spoke of her.” Her 
brown eyes were soft and pitying as they rested 
for a moment on the young man’s face. “ You 
must be very lonely,” she added, with sim- 
plicity. 

John Lough met the clear, compassionate 
eyes, and held them for an instant with his 
own. “Yes,” he said gravely, “I am — very 
lonely. 

“If they fly out quickly in the morning,” 
Hazel was saying to Patrick, who stood by, 
gazing at the hive with an air of the greatest 
satisfaction, “ they will go back to the chimney, 
I am afraid.” 


9 — Wings and Fetters . 


137 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


“ That is precisely wliat they would do/’ said 
John Lough. “ I perceive more plainly than 
ever that Nature intended you to be a mistress 
of bees, for you anticipate their movements like 
a veteran. But now I will show you what we 
must do to make them stop long enough to find 
out where home is.’’ He pulled several hand- 
fuls of grass and clover-blossoms and heaped 
them loosely on the alighting board, so that the 
long, narrow hive door was almost closed. “This 
will prevent them from hurrying off to their 
work in the morning/’ he said. “ They will be 
forced to make their way slowly through the 
grass blades, and this unlooked-for circumstance 
will cause them to notice the hive and its sur- 
roundings more carefully than they otherwise 
would. Some of them — giddy young things a 
few weeks old perhaps — will forget and go back 
to the top of the chimney. You will see them 
there to-morrow. But sooner or later they will 
all find the way either to their new home or the 
old one.’* 


WINGED AMAZONS 


“ Do tlie Lee-babies have to work?” asked 
Hazel wonderingly. 

“They begin their labors in the hive by taking 
care of the younger children,” he told her. 
“ You remember that yesterday I showed you 
the larvae in their cradles. These bee-babies 
require a great deal of tending and feeding for 
about eight days. They are watched over by 
experienced old nurses, who seal or cap over 
the cradles with a thin, paper-like substance on 
the ninth day. A week later the young bees 
gnaw through this coverlid and crawl out, all 
yellowish white and downy like newly hatched 
chickens.” 

“Oh, I wish I could see them!” cried Hazel, 
clapping her hands. 

“ If we look into the hive in about ten days, 
we shall see plenty of them,” said the young 
man, smiling at her eagerness. “ These prom- 
ising infants are apparently allowed to do ex- 
actly as they please, and for a day or so they 
wander slowly about the combs, poking their 
i39 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


downy heads into everybody’s business, eating 
the new honey out of the great vats of golden 
liquid, and having a good time generally.” 

Hazel looked inquiring. “ I thought they put 
the honey into tiny little cells,” she said doubt- 
fully. 

“ But the bee-baby is n’t as large as you are, 
dear,” said Love Gordon, who was listening as 
eagerly as the little girl. “ Every tiny cell, as 
you call it, would seem almost as large as a 
barrel would to you.” 

“ Of course,” assented Hazel. “ But I am so 
stupid ! ” 

Stupid was not quite the word to ajqdy to the 
sparkling little face, John Lough thought. He 
went on with an air of extreme enjoyment of 
his theme and audience : “ I have always won- 
dered whether the head nurse lectures these 
meddlesome young persons, or whether the sense 
of duty awakens in them at sight of the self- 
denying labors going on about them. At all 
events, they are seldom more than three days 
140 


WINGED AMAZONS 


old wlien we find them busily taking care of the 
infants who are still in their cradles. They mix 
the pollen and honey into the mysterious, milky- 
looking food in which the larvae seems to float, 
and on which it makes such astonishing growth. 
They also prepare the royal jelly for the queen 
cells. But that is a story all by itself. When 
the young bees are a week or ten days old, they 
take their first flight out of doors. If you watch, 
you will see the golden little creatures frolicking 
about the entrance to the hive, tumbling over 
each other and getting in the way of the sober 
old bees, who are never seen to scold or get out 
of patience with the young ones, no matter how 
much they have to do.” 

“ I shall tell that to Collins,” said Hazel with 
feeling. “ She does so hate to have me in the 
kitchen when she is cooking ; and, of course, I 
must go there sometimes if I am ever to learn. 
Love knows everything about cooking already.” 

“You shouldn’t make irrelevant remarks, 
Hazel,” said Miss Gordon, coloring. “When 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


do the young workers begin the serious business 
of honey-making, Mr. Lough ? ” 

“When they reach the age of two weeks,” 
lie replied, “though sometimes much earlier. 
But we must remember that the whole life of 
the worker is very short. In the height of the 
honey-making season it is rarely more than 
seven weeks. One will often find scores of 
worn-out laborers, their wings ragged and torn, 
hopping about in the grass near the hives. I 
spent many an hour in the early days of my 
bee-keeping rescuing these crippled veterans and 
restoring them to the hive. But I found that 
they usually declined to enter, crawling away 
again to die in some quiet corner as far as pos- 
sible from home. They are seemingly unwilling 
to hamper the young bees with their presence, 
though they would live perhaps several weeks" 
longer in the quiet and plenty of the brood 
chamber.” 

“ They ought to be allowed a comfortable old 
age with quantities of the very best honey — or 
142 


WINGED AMAZONS 


that royal jelly which sounds so perfectly de- 
licious ! ” said Hazel stoutly. “ I think I shall 
have a nice new hive on purpose for those poor 
old bees. I could pick them up and put them 
in, could n’t I ? ” 

“ You could, certainly,” replied Mr. Lough 
seriously; “ but they would n’t stay there. Be- 
sides, any such home for aged and infirm bees 
of good moral character would certainly start 
the younger generation on a career of crime 
and burglary. For they are very much like 
human beings, after all, and are apt to become 
demoralized by great stores of unguarded wealth 
within easy reach.” The young man glanced 
at his watch as he spoke. “ I want to tell you 
just one more thing about the young bees,” he 
said; “ then I must go. Unfortunately, I have 
one of those detestable ‘ pasteboard’ calls to make 
this evening, which can be neither postponed 
nor evaded.” 

Love Gordon’s expressive eyes shone with 
amusement at this naive remark. He caught 
143 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


tlie sparkle in tlieir brown depths, and his face 
reddened. “ Mrs. de Forest will have told you 
what a confirmed hermit I am,” he said frankly. 
“I shall not apologize, but merely warn you 
that I am likely to talk my audience and the 
bees to a finish on occasions like this.” 

“ I am so glad ! ” cried Hazel, with unbounded 
enthusiasm. Miss Gordon said nothing ; but 
John Lough seemed satisfied with the look she 
gave him.” 

“ The prettiest sight in all bee days,” he went 
on cheerfully, “ is to see the young worker 
bringing in its first load of pollen. It circles 
round and round the hive with an air of the 
greatest importance; then, alighting with a loud, 
humming sound, pushes rudely past the other 
bees, and hurries in with its burden. When 
one has an observation hive — one with glass 
sides, Miss Hazel — one can follow the young 
braggart as he bustles within, swaggering about, 
for all the world like a small boy with his first 
pair of trousers, jostling the nurses, scurrying 
144 


WINGED AMAZONS 


about among the comb-builders, and even dis- 
turbing tlie august queen in her rounds of the 
royal nurseries. The youthful neophyte is 
gently inducted into the art of kicking off his 
load into the pollen cells, where experts are 
waiting to mix and pack it away in the shape 
of multi-colored bee-bread for future consump- 
tion.” 

In the hasty leave-taking that followed, the 
master of bees paused long enough to assure 
Love Gordon that the carriage would be at the 
door at ten o’clock the following morning. The 
young lady mentioned the fact to her aunt that 
same evening, as she assisted the invalid in pre- 
paring for the night.” 

Mrs. Sedgewick glanced curiously at the girl’s 
sparkling face. “ It is certainly very good of 
Mr. Lough to have thought of me,” she said. 
“ But I shall hardly be able to avail myself of 
his kindness, I fear. I simply could not bear 
to drive, now that my own carriages are gone. 
It would remind me too bitterly of the past.” 
i45 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


She sighed heavily, then added in a somewhat 
querulous tone : “ John Lough is, of course, 
immensely clever and all that ; but he has not 
the slightest knowledge of the world. Mrs. de 
Forest told me that he was always the shyest 
mortal alive, and his mother, who was widowed 
young, allowed him his own way in everything. 
They traveled abroad for years; then her health 
failed, and the two settled down in the country 
here, where there is, of course, absolutely no 
society. Mrs. de Forest invited them to New- 
port last summer. Of course every one was 
inclined to lionize young Lough, not only be- 
cause he is really quite a litterateur, but he is 
immensely rich besides. The denouement was 
that he simply withdrew into his shell, and 
declined to be coaxed out. One of the season’s 
greatest belles, they say, was quite inconsolable 
for a time.” 

Her aunt’s tone and manner were so like her 
old self that Love Gordon asked a harmless 
question or two as she moved lightly about the 
146 


WINGED AMAZONS 


room. But Mrs. Sedgewick’s manner had sud- 
denly stiffened for some unaccountable reason. 
“I really hope we shall not see too much of 
him,” she said with a fretful sigh. “You are 
not ‘out/ remember, and I cannot do anything 
for you socially, as I had planned and intended 
before your poor uncle died.” 

“ Oh, Aunt Margaret,” murmured Love, her 
cheeks aflame, “please do not think of me at all. 
I am sure I should not care for society.” 

The girl felt both hurt and mortified as she 
sought her own room, though she could scarcely 
have told herself why. This new and vaguely 
unpleasant ache in her heart caused her, curi- 
ously enough, to close her shutters with haste, 
thereby shutting out the view of John LouglTs 
red roofs in their picturesque setting of ever- 
greens and apple-blossoms. Nor did she even 
glance that way the next morning with the 
pleasant anticipation which had been growing, 
all unknown to herself, for many days past. 

At breakfast time Hazel came in with glow- 

147 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


ing cheeks, brimming over with wonderful in- 
formation regarding her bees, which were coming 
and going like old residents. 

“ Patrick has taken away the grass now,” said 
the little girl happily. “ He says they have all 
made their first flight, and I don’t see very many 
around the chimney. Mr. Lough told me to let 
him know if there were. He said he would put 
a piece of honeycomb on the chimney, and they 
would gather on that at nighttime, then he could 
bring them down and make them go into the 
hive. Is n’t he good, Love? And don’t you 
think he has the handsomest eyes ? They are 
just like deep, deep pools of clear water ! Oh, 
I do hope he will come and tell us about the 
queen and the royal jelly to-day. He almost 
promised me last night.” 

“ Hazel,” said Miss Gordon with stately 
gravity, “ we must be careful not to impose on 
Mr. Lough’s good nature. I think Patrick can 
do all that is necessary for the bees now ; and 
148 


WINGED AMAZONS 


I will buy you a book which will tell you all 
about them. ,, 

“ But you know that is n’t half so interesting, 
Lovina Gordon/’ persisted Hazel. “ Don’t you 
like to hear him talk? Don’t you think he is 
nice and handsome and — yes, I will say it — 
lovely ?” 

“ He is certainly very pleasant,” said Love 
coolly. “But, please remember what I said to 
you about gushing. It is exceedingly vulgar.” 

“Well, I call that disagreeable, and ungrate- 
ful, too,” said Hazel. “ Not to want me to 
like him when he has been so kind and pleasant 
— and an author, too ! ” 

“Are authors generally unkind and disagree- 
able, then ? ” asked Miss Gordon, laughing in 
spite of herself. 

“ They are, I imagine, either bending over 
backwards with pride if people like their writ- 
ings, or cross and grumpy if they do not,” opined 
Hazel wisely. “ But I should never dream of 
liis being an author at all. He is just perfect!” 

149 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


“ Hazel,” said Miss Gordon, in a sort of des- 
peration, “ have you learned that history lesson 
perfectly ? ” 

“ I don’t believe so — that is, not yet. It is 
so stupid and uninteresting I can’t learn it. 
Mr. Lough told me he had a nice story which 
takes in that very period. I am going to get it 
after breakfast. He told me to come. You 
might come with me if you wanted to ; his 
library is the most fascinating place you ever 
saw.” 

“ You must not stop to look at anything,” said 
Miss Gordon severely. “ Mr. Lough is always 
busy in the morning. But, wait a minute; I 
want you to take a note to him for me.” 

“A note ! ” exclaimed Hazel inquiringly. 
“About what? He’ll be coming over to-night. 
I shall remind him of — ” 

“ No, you must not,” and Miss Gordon’s tone 
was peremptory. “ He will think us very bold 
and pushing. He does not like to know people. 
Did n’t you hear him say so?” The note she 
150 


WINGED AMAZONS 


presently penned and dispatched by the hand of 
her cousin brought a puzzled frown to John 
Lough’s handsome brows when he read it. It 
was merely a very formal declination in her 
aunt’s name of the offer of the carriage. 
































































































































































































































































O' 














































































































































































CHAPTER IX 


HAZEL EXPLAINS 

J OHN LOUGH’S story, as briefly related 
by Mrs. Sedgewick, was, in the main, cor- 
rect. The only son of his mother, and to 
her the circle of the whole round world, he had 
grown up under her loving care in the most 
luxurious of homes. “It was a nest far too 
soft,” he told himself at times, with a touch of 
bitterness, when, with the natural stirrings of 
young manhood, he longed to break away, if 
only for a time, from the silken cords which 
held him so unyieldingly. There were times 
when he would have been glad to be stripped 
of every token of wealth, that he might engage 
the world in a fierce wrestle for bare livelihood — 
that he might meet other men and measure liim- 

10 — Wings and Fetters . 1 5 \ 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


self against them on the firm level of hard work 
and strenuous endeavor. But his mother’s sad 
eyes held him at her side, and when, after her 
death, he found himself his own master, the 
strain and stress of youthful ambition had some- 
what slackened, and he had settled down con- 
tentedly enough to his pen. He had been 
writing fitfully for years, when, to his mother’s 
immense delight and his own astonishment, he 
had somehow found himself the famous author 
of several small volumes of verse and prose. 

He secretly regarded his own work as indif- 
ferent to a degree, and was just about to begin a 
task more arduous and of wider scope than any 
he had before attempted, when, as he himself 
put it in a sonnet hastily composed on the even- 
ing of the same day, “ Spring knocked at his 
door.” The vision of Love Gordon, with her 
breeze-blown hair, her fresh, young color, and 
her clear, asking eyes, had remained with him 
pretty constantly, sleeping and waking, since 
the delicious shock of its surprise. 

*54 


HAZEL EXPLAINS 


And yet nothing was more remote from the 
imagination of this singular young man than 
thoughts of love commonly so called. The 
vision had unnumbered sister wraiths in the 
guise of heavenly sunsets, of fair, flower-decked 
forests, of tender, shimmering stretches of moon- 
lit water. John Lough was a poet; hence he 
loved impartially everything that was beautiful 
and harmonious. Heretofore he had not in- 
cluded women in the category — simply because 
he had not known many of them. His mother 
occupied a throne quite by herself — already 
surrounded in memory by a saintly nimbus. 
The few specimens of tailor-made, conventional 
young ladies who had been presented to his 
notice had failed to appeal to his artistic sense. 
They were handsome, doubtless — like highly 
cultivated varieties of the rose or dahlia. But 
the gardener’s art was too conspicuous. Tlieir 
undeniable beauty was too suggestive of the 
forcing grounds and the pruning knife. Hence 
i55 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


the lamentable failure of his Newport visit, 
mentioned by Mrs. Sedge wick. 

“ I am immensely sorry I cannot gratify you 
by falling in love with one or all of these charm- 
ing young women,” he had said quite seriously 
to his hostess when she had frankly taken him 
to task in the matter. “ I have no doubt it 
would be very agreeable as well as beneficial to 
my character; but I simply can’t, you know.” 

Whereupon Mrs. de Forest had lectured him 
soundly on his general obduracy and hardness 
of heart. “ I had quite set my heart on seeing 
John married to that lovely Dorothea Van 
Brunt,” she told his mother. “ She is simply a 
paragon of all the virtues, and of the most un- 
exceptionable connections.” 

Mrs. Lough had listened with thoughtful 
attention to this and similar eulogies. It is 
probable that she did not regard any of the 
young women whom she met as the equal of her 
John. “ My son seems satisfied with the society 
of his mother,” she said ingenuously. “Why 
156 


hazel explains;; 

should we endeavor to wean him from a life 
which seems to make him happy, and in which 
he is certainly doing a very great work in 
instructing and uplifting the world.” 

The good lady doubtless overrated her son’s 
literary abilities with a quite pardonable mater- 
nal pride. But, as the event proved to her open 
satisfaction, the young man remained heart- 
whole to the day of her death. It might have 
been a slight pricking of conscience which, at 
the last, caused her to say to him: “ I hope, 
dear John, that you will find someone to fill 
my place before long.” 

He had passionately assured her that this was 
impossible. By way of answer she smiled up 
into his face with a mixture of joy and sad 
prescience. Then, after a short silence, she 
spoke again — this time to herself — or to some 
unseen presence at her side : “ He will find her. 
She is not far away, and I am glad ; for he will 
be lonely, poor John!” 

Curiously enough, these strange last words of 
i57 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


his mother’s flashed back into his mind as he 
read Love Gordon’s chilly little note. Hazel 
was watching his expressive face. 

“ Love was cross this morning,” she said ten- 
tatively. “No — not cross exactly. She is never 
cross. She says it is the stupidest thing in the 
world to be cross. But sometimes she is very 
dignified, and then I have to be careful and not 
exaggerate or gush ; for she simply crushes me 
in the politest way, and makes me feel about so 
big!” The little girl gravely measured off a 
minute bit of her rosy finger by way of illustra- 
tion. “ It is n’t nice to gush, I know,” she 
added, gazing with open admiration into the 
eyes which, she had said, were like deep, deep 
pools of still water; “but sometimes one can’t 
help it, if they like anyone as much as I like 
you.” 

“I am very much obliged to you, Hazel, ’’ 
said John Lough. But his face was grave, and 
he glanced again in a puzzled way at the sheet 
of note-paper, which he still held in his hand. 

158 


HAZEL EXPLAINS 


“Well, I suppose I must go,” said Hazel with 
a deep sigli. “ Love said I must n’t stay a min- 
ute, for you were always busy in the morning. 
She said something else, too — the queerest thing. 
I don’t believe it, either. Shall I tell you what 
it was? ” 

He hesitated. “ I don’t suppose you ought 
to repeat what was not intended for me to hear,” 
he said at last, with a little shake of his broad 
shoulders. 

“ She did n’t say I should n’t tell,” said Hazel 
positively, “ and I feel as though I must know. 
If I thought it was true I should be too un- 
happy!” 

“ If it is anything I can do — If you think — •” 
he began, this time with shameless curiosity in 
his eyes. 

“ Well, I ’m going to say it right out. Love 
said you would think that we were very bold 
and pushing if I reminded you that you almost 
promised to come over this evening and tell us 
about the royal jelly and the queen. You did 
J 59 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


almost promise, you know, and I have been just 
thinking of it and looking forward to it every 
single minute. She said that she would buy me 
a book about bees. Think of that!” The fine 
scorn with which the word ‘ book ’ was uttered was 
an excellent corrective for an author’s lurking 
vanity, thought her attentive listener. What he 
said was prompt and to the point : 

“ I never thought of anything except that I 
had found some very delightful neighbors, and 
that perhaps I could see much of them — if they 
liked me as well as I liked them. I was glad — 
for I am lonely,” he added, half-unconsciously 
quoting his mother’s words. 

“That ’s just exactly what I thought!” said 
Hazel with a beatific look. “ Love said you 
did n’t want to know people; but we are n’t just 
people. That sounds so — so — ” She j^aused as 
if in search of a word. 

“ Inclusive,” laughed John Lough. “ Well, I 
am not sure that I do want to know ‘people.’ I 
ought to want to. It is a defect in my education 
160 


HAZEL EXPLAINS 


of which I am sadly aware. But I do want to 
know you, Hazel. And I assure you that I 
intend to sedulously cultivate your acquaintance, 
if I may?” 

“It is what I want more than anything in 
the world!” Hazel assured him with the generous 
abandon of her years. “You will want to know 
Love, too,” she added seriously. “ She is really 
the most wonderful girl in the world ! I could n’t 
begin to tell you how lovely and sweet and 
good and clever and unselfish and cheerful and 
funny and — But, oh, how she would look at 
me if she could hear me; and I must go this 
very minute. Good-bye, John Lough. I may 
call you that, may n’t I, if you call me Hazel. 
I like to say it ; it sounds so square !” 

She was gone like a flash, and John Lough 
stood in his door looking after her, with a curi- 
ous smile on his lips. Then he went back to his 
study, glanced indifferently at the scattered sheets 
of manuscript which lay upon his desk, and 
finally searched for and found among a mass of 
161 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


papers the unfinished sonnet entitled “When 
Spring Came to My Door.” “ It was far too 
cold and impersonal,” he decided, and fell to 
amending the faulty lines, which he finished 
with a fine glow of inspiration. 

In the beginning of the long spring twilight 
Hazel was gazing fondly at her bees, as the late 
comers promenaded up and down on the alighting 
board with a low, humming sound expressive of 
profound satisfaction with their day’s labor when 
John Lough’s tall figure emerged from behind 
the clustered evergreens. He closed the little 
gate behind him, and cast an inquiring glance 
toward the- Sedgewick house. Hazel flew to 
meet him with a glad cry of welcome. “ I ’ve 
been watching for you,” she said. “ I was so 
afraid you would turn around and get proper all 
of a sudden and disapprove of me when you 
came to think it over. People do that sometimes, 
and you never know when they are going to. 
Lovina Gordon is always doing it. Peally, she 
likes to say things right out, just the way I do. 

162 


HAZEL EXPLAINS 


I know she does. And sometimes she just lets 
go of herself, and we have the j oiliest old times. 
Then perhaps the very next day she ’ll be as 
grown-up and proper! I have n’t had a bit of 
fun with her to-day. But that ’s because mother’s 
nerves have been bad again. Love has to stay 
with her all the time when her nerves are bad; 
mother would n’t have Collins, even if Collins 
had time; and she has n’t a bit, because we ’ve 
no other maids. Collins is real cross sometimes. 
I heard her tell Patrick that he is an old goose 
to stay here. But you could n’t get Patrick to 
leave Love any more than you could get the 
moon out of the sky. He simply worships the 
ground she walks on. He told Collins so right 
out.” 

“H’m,” commented John Lough, with a 
thoughtful air. “ Where is Miss Gordon this 
evening?” 

“She is reading out loud to mother,” said 
Hazel crossly “ I tried to get her to come out. 
I said I would read out loud. But mother said 

163 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


it made her nervous to see me fidget. She likes 
Love’s voice, too ; it makes her go to sleep after 
a while. Sometimes, though, it takes a long, long 
time ; and sometimes Love gets up in the middle 
of the night and reads. I heard her for ever so 
long last night.” 

John Lough frowned. “ Mrs. Sedgewick evi- 
dently needs a nurse,” he said. “ I don’t 
think — ” He stopped short and bit his lip as 
if cutting short some sentence which struggled 
for utterance. 

“ Don’t be afraid to say just what you think 
to me," said Hazel comfortably. “I sha’n’t re- 
peat it.” She had the grace to blush scarlet as 
soon as the words were out of her mouth. “Of 
course you will think I am a regular little tale- 
bearer after this morning,” she went on hurriedly. 
“ But I thought that was different. Don’t you 
think it was ?” 

John Lough hastened to assure her that he 
fully appreciated her frankness. “In fact, it 
made me much more comfortable under what I 
164 


HAZEL EXPLAINS 


should have been disposed to regard as a down- 
right snub,” he added. 

“Was it Love’s note? — the snub, I mean,” 
asked Hazel. “ I thought she looked awesome 
when she was writing it. I did n’t dare ask to 
read it.” 

“ I wanted to send the carriage around this 
morning — and every morning, to take you all 
out for a drive,” he explained. “I thought it 
would perhaps be good for your mother, and 
for—” 

“And would n’t she go?” 

“Miss Gordon absolutely declined in your 
mother’s name ; but perhaps Mrs. Sedgewick 
is n’t able to drive.” 

“It was only last week mother was moaning 
because she had n’t any carriage,” said Hazel. 
“ Mother’s nerves are so queer,” she added 
mournfully. “She said it would make her think 
of other days to go in a carriage that was n’t 
hers. Love wanted to hire one, though we really 
could n’t afford it.” 

165 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


“ Shall I tell you about the queen bee now?” 
said John Lough abruptly. He was still frown- 
ing, and he tugged at his short mustache in a 
way which his mother would have understood as 
betraying the deepest annoyance. 

“ Please, do,” assented Hazel with enthusiasm. 
“ How do you know there is a queen? Does she 
wear a crown, and has she ladies in waiting ? ” 

“ She has ladies in waiting, certainly,” he said, 
his face clearing somewhat; “ but not even Queen 
Wilhelmina wears her crown all the time. The 
queen is in reality the liive-mother ; she is also 
the centre and ruler of her nation, which cannot 
thrive and work for long without their queen. 
And this is how that mysterious royal jelly comes 
into the bee story. You were proposing, I be- 
lieve, to feed it to the aged and infirm workers 
in your bee-hospital.” 

“ It sounds so rich and delicious,” murmured 
Hazel. 

“ When by any mischance the queen is lost, 
as sometimes happens,” he went on, “the bees 
166 


HAZEL EXPLAINS 


very soon find it out, and set about getting a new 
one. You might think perhaps that they would 
choose the wisest and most industrious bee in the 
hive for queen ; but royalty must be born, not 
made, and the bees know that as well as any 
nation in Europe.” He stopped short at sound 
of a heavy step on the turf. It was Collins, 
and she courtesied deep at sight of him. 

“ Asking your pardon, sir,’’ said Collins, 
“Miss Hazel is wanted immediate by the 
madam. Mrs. Sedgewick hid not be knowing 
you was here, sir,” she added majestically. 

Hazel cast an imploring glance at the young 
man. “ I forgot all about brushing mother’s 
hair,” she said in a low voice. “ But she hardly 
ever wants it done so early. Oh, I do wish — ” 

“Some morning next week,” he said kindly, 
as he looked down into the little girl’s disap- 
pointed face; “I will show you a queen cradle — 
for unless I am greatly mistaken this great 
swarm will find its new quarters uncomfortably 
small. Good-night ! ” 


167 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


Then this absurdly impressionable young man 
went away and tramped many miles under the 
shining of the May moon ; and as he walked 
certain things which had appeared strange and 
past finding out in the years that were gone 
became on a sudden far clearer than the moon- 
light. There was also a wandering spirit of 
music abroad which sang about his ears persist- 
ently, till at last he went home and wrote down 
all the words that sprang unbidden to the white 
paper. And, behold, it was a second sonnet ; 
and he called it “ When Spring Came to my 
Heart I” 


1 68 


CHAPTER X 


H 


TWO MAIDS AND A QUEEN 

" AZEL, dear ! Hazel, I want you.” It 
was Love Gordon’s soft voice that 
called. 

By way of answer the little girl’s rapid feet 
clattered across the bare boards of the attic 
chamber. “ What is it, Love?” she asked in a 
muffled voice. “ Don’t tell me that it ’s time 
for that horrid history lesson. I have n’t learned 
a word of it yet.” 

“Why, what are you doing, child?” demanded 
Love, her brown eyes opening to their widest as 
she gained her cousin’s side. 

“ I ’m making a bee hat for myself, and one 
for you,” said Hazel, with evident pride. 
“They Te a new kind, and all my own idea, 

//— IVings and Fetters. 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


too. I ’ve taken some of this wire netting that 
Patrick had to cover the screen doors with; and 
then, you see, I ’ve made a sort of round cage 
big enough to go over our heads. It ’s awfully 
hard to cut the stuff, Love. Won’t you help 
me? I ’ve got to stitch a round piece in the 
top next, and then — ” 

“Aren’t those Aunt Margaret’s embroidery 
scissors, Hazel?” asked Love Gordon, with evi- 
dent disapproval. 

“Well, I could n’t find any others, dear Miss 
Prim ; I was in such a dreadful hurry, you 
know,” replied the culprit composedly. “Mother 
never embroiders nowadays; so it does n’t sig- 
nify in the least. But I wish you ’d find me a 
bigger pair ; these hurt my fingers. Do, that ’s 
a good girl ! You see, Love, if another swarm 
should come out, I want to be able to fix them 
myself. I would n’t have the face to ask John 
Lough after the crushing note you sent him 
this morning. I think it was horrid of you, 
too, when — ” 


170 


TWO MAIDS AND A QUEEN 


“ Did Mr. Lough tell you that it was a crush- 
ing note?” asked Miss Gordon, with dignity; 
“or did you merely assume as much? It was a 
perfectly proper and polite — ” 

“ Oh, dear me, yes,” interrupted Hazel, with 
a disrespectful shrug ; “ I don’t doubt it was 
perfectly proper and polite and all that; but it 
made him feel too wretched for anything. I 
tell you, Love, John Lough is n’t one bit the 
way you said.” 

“The way I said?” repeated the young lady, 
frowning a little. “And, my dear Hazel, why 
do you call him John Lough? You should n’t 
speak of a stranger in that familiar fashion ; it 
is very ill-bred.” 

“ I don’t think so,” observed Hazel, with the 
serenity of conviction. “ He calls me Hazel, 
for one thing ; and for another, he is n’t a 
stranger. He is one of my dearest friends. So 
there ! ” 

Miss Gordon offered no comment on this sur- 
prising statement; and after a pause, filled with 
I 7 I 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


strenuous efforts to sever the wire netting with 
the embroidery scissors, Hazel went on with a 
defiant toss of her short, curling locks : “ It 
does n’t take me forever to find a dearest friend, 
Lovina Gordon. I knew the very minute I 
laid eyes on John Lough that I should always 
like him, and I always shall. I shall try to 
make it up to him. ,, 

“ Make what up to him ?” 

“ Why, your — your meanness. Yes, I will 
say so. Why did n’t you tell him you ’d be 
delighted to go driving in his carriage? He 
was just as disappointed as he could be; and 
you know mother wanted to — ” 

“Aunt Margaret told me to decline the invi- 
tation, Hazel. Now, really, my dear, I must 
ask you to drop the subject and come down and 
attend to your lessons at once.” 

When Miss Gordon chose to assume the tone 
and manner which she wore as she said these 
words, the younger girl generally wilted. “ I 
am coming, Love,” she said meekly. “ But you 
172 


TWO MAIDS AND A QUEEN 


will help me finish these bee-liats after luncheon, 
won’t you?” 

“ Yes, dear — if I am not too busy with Aunt 
Margaret’s peignoir; she needs it, and I am so 
slow with my needle.” 

“ You are n’t meant to grub and sew all the 
while, that ’s why,” said Hazel, under her breath. 
In the depths of the despised history she mur- 
mured : “ Yes, I shall make it up to John 
Lough — -just as much as I possibly can.” 

Ten minutes later the decorous account of 
England’s kings, queens and wars dropped to 
the floor with a loud thump, which caused Mrs. 
Sedgewick’s half-closed eyes to open with a fret- 
ful exclamation. “Dear, dear, what a trying 
child Hazel is growing!” she said languidly. 
“ I fear you are not going to be equal to the 
task of training her, Love. But where has the 
child gone, my dear? She ought never to be 
allowed to leave a room in that rude, abrupt 
manner.” 

The question was answered by Hazel herself, 
173 


WINGS AND FETTERS 

who at that moment thrust her flushed face in at 
the open window long enough to ejaculate a 
single word : “ Bees.” 

“Bees?” repeated Mrs. Sedge wick, with a dis- 
pleased pucker of her delicate brows. 44 Really, 
I think I must order Patrick to throw them all 
away ; I cannot endure these startling interrup- 
tions. You had best go and call the child, Love; 
and, stay — you may direct Collins to sit within 
sound of my bell for the next hour while you 
hear Hazel’s lessons in the dining-room .’ 9 

44 1 am afraid Collins is busy with the ironing, 
Aunt Margaret,” said the girl hesitatingly ; 
44 and—” 

44 What does that signify, pray?” demanded 
Mrs. Sedgewick. 44 Collins’ time and conve- 
nience are not her own, remember. She is my 
servant; though I fear she often forgets the fact. 
I fancy you are a very demoralizing factor in the 
house, as far as the servants are concerned, my 
dear. It will never do to allow them to forget 
their place.” 


174 


TWO MAIDS AND A QUEEN 


Love Gordon’s lips quivered for an instant ; 
then she compressed them tightly. “ I will tell 
Collins, Aunt Margaret,” she said gently. 

“ I have to go after Miss Hazel, Collins,” she 
was saying in the kitchen a moment later. “She 
has run away from her lessons after something 
or other. I know you are busy this afternoon ; 
but if I open these two doors do you think you 
could hear Aunt Margaret’s bell? And would 
you please — ” 

“ I ’ll do it for you, Miss Love,” said Collins, 
setting down her flatiron with a decided clap. 
“ But I hope to goodness that the madam will 
keep her bell quiet whilst you ’re gone. As for 
Miss Hazel, she ’s run after a swarm of bees; she 
must have seen ’em out the window. They was 
in full flight over the garden way, an’ she ’s took 
after ’em like a bird. I don’t think you ’ll catch 
either of ’em, if you ask me.” 

“I shall have to try,” was Love’s answer, as 
she snatched a broad-brimmed hat from the hall 
table and hastened away in chase of the fugi- 
i75 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


tives. She presently caught sight of a fragment 
of Hazel’s pink cotton frock fluttering from a 
barbed- wire fence, and later heard an excited 
shout from the little girl. 

“Come on, Love; they ’ve just dropped among 
these trees somewhere.” 

The little grove of slender, grey-bodied beeches 
seemed filled with a gentle humming sound. Love 
Gordon paused knee-deep in a tangle of fragrant 
young fern to listen. 

“ They ’re here somewhere,” repeated Hazel, 
staring up into the leafy wilderness above her 
head. “ I saw them coming down. They were 
way up in the sky, whirling like a cyclone. I 
just know it’s one of John Lough’s swarms; 
would n’t I like to — ” She stopped short 
with a loud exclamation of surprise and dis- 
may. 

“What — what is it?” stammered Love Gor- 
don confusedly. The humming sound was grow- 
ing louder ; it filled her ears with a low, continu- 
ous roar like the sound of a waterfall. Myriads 
176 


TWO MAIDS AND A QUEEN 


of golden-brown specks danced dizzily before 
lier eyes. 

“ Why — ee ! Love, they — they ’re swarming 
on — your hat!” gasped Hazel. “Don’t move — 
don’t touch them — Oh ! ” 

Love Gordon stood motionless, her face grow- 
ing white under the broad brim of the hat, which 
began to droop heavily toward her shoulders 
under its burden of bees. 

“Oh, Love, it ’s a splendid big swarm,” 
breathed Hazel excitedly; “and they won’t hurt 
you a bit because they ’re so busy thinking about 
their queen. She’s right there on your hat, you 
know. If you ’ll only keep perfectly quiet, I ’ll 
run and get Patrick and a nail-keg. He ’s just 
got to let me have one this time. It won’t take 
more than a minute or two to wash it out with 
molasses and water; then we ’ll come back and 
take your hat off. I do hope there is n’t a hat- 
pin in it.” 

“Hazel — don’t go!” begged Miss Gordon, her 
breath coming in short, hurried gasps. But the 
177 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


little girl was already out of hearing. “ Don’t 
move, Love, till I come!” came floating back on 
the breeze ; then she was left alone, dizzily erect 
in the tangle of fern. The pungent odor of 
honey and wax half stifled her ; the weight and 
heat of the great swarm threatened to crush her 
to the earth. “If I should fall down/’ she 
thought, “ it would disturb them and they would 
be angry. Somewhere she had read of men and 
animals perishing under the assaults of furious 
bees. Then she almost laughed aloud as she 
fancied what an odd sight she must present in 
her curiously decorated liat. During what 
seemed an interminable age the girl stood rigidly 
erect in the hot sunshine ; now and then clusters 
of bees dropped from the weighted hat-brim and 
crawled aimlessly about her thinly-clad shoul- 
ders. Everything was beginning to waver huge 
and misshapen before the wide brown eyes. “ It 
is only a bad dream, after all,” she told herself. 
“ I shall wake up presently and — ” 

On a sudden, surrounding objects resumed 
178 


TWO MAIDS AND A QUEEN 


tlieir familiar outlines once more ; someone was 
speaking to her in a voice which brought back 
the color with a rush to her white cheeks. 

“ Shut your eyes for just a moment, Miss 
Gordon/’ said the quiet voice ; “ I want to puff 
a little smoke among these trespassers, then we ’ll 
relieve you of your singular hat trimming.” 

“ You ’re a regular darling, Lovina Gordon,” 
cried Hazel from somewhere in the rear, “ to 
stand so still and not scare the swarm. Was n’t 
I glad, though, to meet John Lough coming, 
with a smoker and everything ! Myers had 
been watching the swarm with a glass all the 
time, and saw it settle on your hat. I wish it 
had been my hat! But everything always hap- 
pens to you, Love, because your ’re a regular 
fairy princess, and — ” 

John Lough had been working as he never 
worked before ; he lifted the hat with its living 
burden from the young girl’s head, handed it to 
the waiting Myers, hastily brushed the clinging 
bees from the round, white neck and shoulders, 
179 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


then, as the slender figure wavered helplessly, 
he caught it in his arms and strode away from 
the neighborhood of the hive. “Fetch some 
water, quick ! ” he ordered Hazel ; “your cousin 
has fainted.” 

“Fainted? Lovina Gordon fainted! Why 
in the world did she do that?” queried Hazel 
aghast, as she dashed the watery contents of her 
hat, recklessly filled in a neighboring brook, into 
the white face which lay against the rough tweed 
coat. “We Ve got lots of fainting medicines 
at the house, John Lough ; shall I run and get 
them, and shan't I call Collins, too ? ” 

“ Yes — yes, do something — quick,” he an- 
swered almost roughly. But as he said the words 
the brown eyes opened and the quick color 
flashed back into the sweet face. 

“ I — I am quite well now,” said Miss Gordon 
rather tremulously. “ But ” — drawing herself 
up with more than her usual dignity — “I am 
really ashamed of myself, Mr. Lough. It must 
have been the heat, I think, and — ” 

i So 


Wings and detiers — 3. 

‘“FETCH SOME WATER, QUICK!’ HE ORDERED HAZEL ” 

See j>. 1S0. 



fen 




TWO MAIDS AND A QUEEN 


“ It was a frightful ordeal,” he said, looking 
down at her anxiously. “ It seemed an age be- 
fore we could reach you. Do you feel able to 
walk now, or shall I call Patrick? Together 
we could carry you home very easily.” 

“ What could you carry her on ? ” demanded 
Hazel. “ It ’s always a shutter in story-books. 
Would n’t that be funny, Love, to be carried 
home on a shutter ? But I fancy mother 
would — ” 

“ I am perfectly able to walk, thank you,” de- 
clared Miss Gordon. “ I hope you did n’t tell 
Aunt Margaret about the bees, Hazel. It would 
annoy her terribly.” 

“ I did n’t go home,” said Hazel. “ I met them 
coming with the hive. Are n’t you glad we got 
that swarm for you, John Lough ?” 

“ That swarm belongs to Miss Gordon,” he 
said promptly. “ She captured it literally and 
metaphorically.” 

“ That would be a regularly splendid pun,” 
observed Hazel approvingly, “if she had only 
181 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


"been wearing a cap ; but you could n’t call that 
old garden hat a cap. Wasn’t it lucky that 
I lost the hatpin out of it yesterday ? If you ’d 
had a hatpin stuck through it into your hair, 
Lovina Gordon, I don’t think they could have 
gotten the swarm without — well, I won’t say 
what was on the tip of my tongue to say; but 
it reminded me somehow of Elizabeth and Mary, 
Queen of Scots. You remember the w r ay Eliza- 
beth took to make sure of her swarm, Love ? ” 
The little girl’s eyes were very bright and she 
skipped excitedly about as she talked. “I was 
just studying the part where Elizabeth had de- 
cided to shut that lovely Mary up in jDrison 
when I looked out of the window and saw the 
swarm whirling past. After this Elizabeth will 
always remind me of a queen bee killing all 
the other queens so she can rule alone.” 

Love Gordon passed her hand confusedly 
across her eyes ; she had grown very pale 
again. “ You will find your books in the dining- 
room, Hazel,” she said gently. “ Please go there 

182 


TWO MAIDS AND A QUEEN 


at once and study quietly till I can come to 
you.” 

Hazel glanced up to meet tlie disapproving 
eyes of the bee-master fixed full upon lier. She 
hung her head, while a deep flush spread over 
her brown cheeks. “Yes, Love,” she said 
meekly. “ But I ’ll tell you one thing, John 
Lough, I don’t mean to look out of the window 
again, not even if a hundred of your swarms go 
by and are lost ! ” 

“ I am afraid you will think us very — very — 
interfering,” faltered Miss Gordon, “ and ex- 
ceedingly unconventional as well. I — ” She 
stopped short, as her self-control threatened to 
desert her altogether. 

“ I only hope you can forgive me, Miss Gor- 
don, for the escapade of my runaway queen,” he 
said. “ Let me urge you to take some rest at 
once.” Then he strode hastily away, feeling 
vaguely sore and indignant with himself in par- 
ticular and with the world at large. 

As for Love Gordon, she went straight to her 
183 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


own room and buried her face in a 
pillow for the space of half an hour, 
tell no tales. 

184 


cool, soft 
Pillows 

Gy 




CHAPTER XI 


A BEE IN HER BONNET 

“ T T ONEY ! ” exclaimed Hazel, as she seated 
lierself at the breakfast-table the next 
morning. “ Where did it come from, 
Collins? Did my bees make it ? ” 

Collins set down the coffee-urn before her 
young mistress with deliberation before she 
made answer. “ It was brought this morning by 
a very respectable serving-man,” she said majesti- 
cally. “ It is for Miss Love, and here ’s the 
card as came with it.” 

Love glanced at the slip of pasteboard with a 
smile. It bore the words: “With humble 
apologies from the queen bee.” 

“ He ought to have sent it to me, I think,” 
pouted Hazel. Then she burst into one of her 

IS— Wings and Fetters . jgr 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


elfin laughs. “Oh, I wish you could have 
seen yourself, Love ! Do you know that hat 
was positively becoming ? — the bees are such a 
pretty brown and they sparkled like spangled 
gauze in the sun. Some of them trailed off the 
back like a veil all bunched up, and some stood 
up in front like pompons. I don’t see, though, 
why you fainted when they were taken off.” 

“Neither do I,” said Miss Gordon lightly. 
“ It was exceedingly foolish of me.” 

“ And to think we have two hives already,” 
went on Hazel, tasting the honey with a rapturous 
smile. “We shall have lots of honey of our 
own this fall ; Patrick says so. I think lie is 
too generous and splendid for anything.” 

“I think so, too,” assented Miss Gorden with 
a sigh. “We could never get along without 
him in the world.” 

“ Well, I ’in glad you ’re coming to your 
senses, Lovina Gordon. That ’s exactly what I 
think. And I don’t believe we half know how 
good he is yet.” 

1 86 


A BEE IN HER BONNET 


“ I don't suppose we do, dear.” 

“ But we sliall know him better and better. 
I hope he 'll come over to-day ; don’t you?" 

Miss Gordon looked mystified. “Patrick is 
right outside in the shrubbery now," she said. 
“I am going to talk with him about the young 
vegetables after breakfast. He has a chance to 
sell them all to a market-gardener, who will 
come after them every day." 

“ Patrick ! " cried Hazel. “ Did you suppose 
I was talking about Patrick ? I meant John 
Lough." 

• Miss Gordon raised her brows warningly ; but 
the little girl was tripping to the door with her 
saucer of honey. “ I ’m going to sacrifice my 
honey to those dear bees," she announced gravely. 
“ It 'll encourage them now they 've just come 
here to live to find that I love them enough to 
give up my honey for them to eat. It 's such 
awfully hard work to get it out of the flowers; 
you 've no idea, Love." 

She came back presently with a smiling face. 

187 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


“ They ’re just delighted,” she exclaimed. “I 
put the saucer on top of one of the hives, and it 
was n’t more than a minute before one of the bees 
found it. I guess he took some of it inside and 
gave it to the queen, and she liked it and sent for 
some more, for lots of them came then. Don’t 
you think I ’d better put the whole of this out for 
them to eat, Love ? It seems positively greedy 
for us to gobble up in great mouthfuls what it 
takes them days to gather. Don’t you think it 
does, Love ? ” 

“ I think they enjoy it,” said Miss Gordon — 
“ the work I mean, especially when there are 
plenty of flowers. I want some of this for Aunt 
Margaret, and for Patrick and Collins, too.” 

“ Well, as long as it ’s your honey, I suppose 
I can’t object; but I ’m sure the bees would 
appreciate the sacrifice.” 

They did. This much was evident before 
many hours had passed. Hazel was quite aston- 
ished at the fervor of the demonstrations which 
took place about the saucer of honey. The bees 


A BEE IN HER BONNET 


fairly tumbled over one another in their eager- 
ness ; the usual orderly going and coming of 
the workers seemed entirely suspended in order to 
do honor to the sacrifice, which seemed absurdly 
inadequate to the little girl. She stole quietly 
indoors and abstracted another fragment of the 
white comb. This she placed on the grass near the 
hives. “They ’ll be so pleased,” she was saying 
to herself, when to her grief and astonishment a 
bee flew angrily in her face and stung her on 
the forehead. 

“ It was an accident, of course,” she explained 
to Collins in the kitchen, where she went in 
search of some soda to plaster on the rapidly 
swelling lump. “ They would n’t sting me on 
purpose, because I ’ve been so kind to them.” 

“ Bees ain’t no respecters of persons, said 
Collins piously. “ They ’re something like Prov- 
idence that a-way. You can’t never tell what ’s 
a-goin’ to happen when they ’re around.” The 
excellent woman hummed a bar of a hymn- 
tune as she rapidly stirred a pan of clear starch. 

189 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


“ It looks kind of like a shower,” she added as 
she plunged a mass of white drapery into the 
translucent mixture. “ I hope I can get your 
ma’s white wrappers dried before it rains. I 
want to iron ’em this aft’noon.” 

“I thought you ironed all day yesterday, 
Collins,” said Hazel in an aggrieved voice. “ I 
want some ice-cream dreadfully, and mother 
said I might tell you to make some.” 

Collins’ ruddy face darkened ominously. “ I 
guess you ’ll have to take it out a-wantin’ this 
day, Miss Hazel,” she said stiffly. There ’s a 
rice pudding all made. I ’d no notion of doin’ 
any more wasliin’ this week ; but along comes 
Miss Love with her arms full, an’ says she ’ s 
a-goin’ to wash ’em — she ’d spilled camphire or 
somethin’ of the like on ’em when they was 
spankin’ fresh, ail’ of course they would n’t do 
for the madam after that.” 

“ I don’t think you ought to speak that way 
about mother, Collins,” said Hazel, with dignity. 
“ You never used to when we were rich.” 


A BEE IN HER BONNET 


Collins made no reply, but the aspect of her 
broad back as she tied on a gingham sunbonnet 
preparatory to carrying the freshly starched 
garments to the clothes-line was not reassuring. 

“ I ’m gettin’ mighty sick an’ tired of this ’ere 
whole experiment,” said Collins to herself, as 
she pinned the mass of starchy muslin and lace 
to the line. “ I ’d a sight druther go as a 
missionary to the heathen, an’ I tol’ Patrick 
Miles so las’ night fair an’ square. ‘ Here we 
be,’ I says, ‘ workin’ for no wages at all/ I says, 
‘ an’ harder ’an iver I thought to work in my 
life. An’ our old age a-comin’ on,’ I says, ‘ an* 
no more ’preciation showed by the madam/ I 
says, ‘an as if we was heathen Chinese. Which 
I ain’t/ I says, ‘ even if you be.’ ” 

The troubled current of Mrs. Miles’ soliloquy 
was rudely interrupted at this point by a sudden 
flash and buzz. 

Her subsequent course of action was viewed 
with interest by Hazel, who stood idly by the 
kitchen window, a discontented pout on her 
191 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


scarlet lips. “ I think Collins is getting to be 
too disagreeable to live/’ Hazel was saying to her- 
self crossly. “ That ’s one of the dreadful things 
about being poor; one seems obliged to allow the 
servants to be impertinent — though I can’t think 
why. Love is always lecturing me lately about 
being polite and considerate to Collins. I am 
sure I never thought of such a thing when — . 
But what can be the matter with her? She 
must be going crazy!” 

There seemed ample ground for this sus- 
picion, in view of the astonishing gyrations in 
which Mrs. Miles was indulging in the clotlies- 
yard. She tore off the gingham bonnet with a 
wild gesture, cast it violently upon the ground and 
stamped on it with vicious emphasis. Then, as 
if this process had failed to relieve her over- 
charged feelings, she began to snatch at the hair- 
pins which confined the severely classic knot in 
which she was wont to coil her not too abundant 
tresses. In this plight she charged violently 
into the kitchen. 


192 


A BEE IN HER BONNET 


“ Take it out!” she screamed ; “ take it out, I 
say ! The nasty little varmint ’s a-bitin’ of me 
in the ’ead!” 

“ Is it a bee?” asked Hazel, eyeing the irate 
Collins from a safe distance. 

By way of answer Collins sank groaning into 
the nearest chair. “ I guess it ’s gone now,” she 
gasped feebly. “ Oh, my ’ead, my ’ead ! ” 

“It was a bee — poor, dear little fellow!” ex- 
claimed Hazel indignantly. “And you ’ve gone 
and crushed his sweet little gauzy wings with 
your big, clumsy hands ; and now he ’ll have 
to die, and never, never fly off happy in the 
morning after flow — ” 

“AiT is it the imper’ant little varmint as flew 
in my bonnet ’at you ’re talkin’ ’bout?” demanded 
Collins, rising majestic, while tears of pain and 
rage overflowed her blue eyes. “An’ it ’s my 
big, clumsy ’ands indeed, is it? Please God, 
there ’ere big, clumsy ’ands ’ll do no more work < 
in this ’ateful ’ouse. I ’ve ’ad enough, that I 
’ave!” With this Mrs. Miles swept out of the 


193 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


kitchen, her auburn locks streaming wildly about 
her shoulders. 

Hazel stood for a full minute listening to the 
grenadier-like tread which echoed down the 
passageway, then she glanced about the kitchen 
with a toss of her naughty head. “ I ’m glad 
of it,” she said aloud, “ just as glad as I can be. 
I can make candy whenever I like now, and ice- 
cream, too ; ’t is n’t a bit hard to do it. I shall 
have some this very day.” She resolved to give 
the dead bee handsome burial before beginning 
these interesting culinary operations, and was 
intent on selecting a suitable shroud for the tiny 
crushed form from a border of velvety pansies, 
when Love’s voice called her from the side piazza. 

“Do you know where Collins is, Hazel?” 
asked Miss Gordon anxiously. “ It is time for 
Aunt Margaret’s luncheon, and the kitchen fire 
has gone out. I don’t see Collins anywhere 
about.” 

“ I suppose she ’s gone by this time,” said Hazel 
coolly. 


194 


A BEE IN HER BONNET 


“Gone?” 

“Yes, gone ; and I ’m glad of it; you ought 
to be, too. She ’s been getting crosser and crosser 
every day since we came here. I guess Collins 
does n’t like the country — and especially bees.” 
Despite her role of coroner, chief mourner and 
undertaker, the little girl giggled at the remem- 
brance of the scene in the backyard. “ I was 
too vexed to laugh at first,” she added with an 
explanatory air, “ but it was as funny as could 
be.” 

“What was funny? Tell me this minute,” 
said Miss Gordon, driven to sternness by a 
rapidly gathering cloud of apprehension. 

“ Why, to see Collins dancing on her sunbon- 
net, and pulling out hairpins with both hands and 
throwing them all over the yard. I just know 
you ’d have laughed if you could have seen her. 
But I was too provoked at first because she killed 
the bee — poor, dear little thing. He did n’t 
mean to sting. I told Collins what I thought 
of her cruelty, and she was furious, and marched 
*95 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


off to get her things, I suppose. I don’t care, 
anyway; she’s too disobliging for , anything. 
She said she would n’t make ice-cream when 
mother said I might order it, and — ” 

“ Oh, Hazel, you did n’t ask Collins to make 
ice-cream to-day?” 

“Yes, I did,” said Hazel defiantly; “why 
should n’t I ? Mother says you spoil the ser- 
vants, and I 'think so, too. When I grow up 
and have maids, I shall never allow — ” 

But Miss Gordon was gone. “Hurrying as 
if she had a bee in her bonnet, too,” muttered 
naughty Hazel, staring after her cousin w T ith 
some astonishment. There were plenty of ex- 
cited bees ready to fly madly into bonnets or 
curls, as Hazel discovered just as she was in the 
act of laying the dead bee in a tiny grave under 
the rose-bush. 

“They act as if they felt real cross about 
something,” murmured the little girl, after she 
had succeeded in shaking the intruder free. A 
moment later she was glad to run as fast as her 

196 


A BEE IN HER BONNET 


feet could carry lier before the determined at- 
tacks of half a dozen of the infuriated Amazons. 
This flight carried her almost into the arms of 
John Lough, who was walking meditatively 
under the shadowy trees on his own lawn. 

“ What is the matter, Hazel?” asked the 
poet, with an amused twinkle in his grey eyes. 
“Are you training for a race with runaway 
swarms?” 

“ I ’m running away from some of my bees,” 
said the child, fanning her hot face with the 
skirt of her ruffled pinafore. “ I ’ve got a sting 
now, and I don’t want another.” 

“I should say not,” said John Lough, exam- 
ining the purple lump under the curling love- 
locks. “You must put a little honey on this, 
and keep away from the hives for a few hours. 
Your friends are evidently vexed about some- 
thing.” 

“They ought not to be,” said Hazel with 
feeling. “I gave them every bit of my share 
of that delicious honey you sent Love, when I 
i97 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


wanted it dreadfully myself. I ’in so fond of 
honey.” 

“ You gave them honey?” 

“ I wanted them to feel at home,” explained 
Hazel, ‘‘and to see that I loved them. It ’s such 
hard work to get honey, you know; I could n’t 
be so greedy as to eat it all myself. And the 
bees were j ust delighted at first ; but afterward 
one stung me, and another flew into Collins’ 
bonnet and stung her. That was too funny; I 
wish you could have seen her. You would have 
laughed, I know, because your eyes are always 
sliiney when there’s anything the least bit funny; 
I ’ve noticed it. But Love did n’t even smile 
when I told her. Sometimes, do you know, I 
think Lovina Gordon is lacking in a sense of 
humor?” The last words were evidently a quo- 
tation. The little girl pronounced them with 
an evident relish, which caused the grey eyes of 
her listener to assume the “shiney” look of which 
she had spoken so appreciatively. 

“What were the net results to Collins?” 

198 


A BEE IN HER BONNET 


he asked quite soberly. “Did the bee sting 
her?” 

“I’m sure I hope so,” replied Hazel unfeel- 
ingly. “She crushed the poor little thing to 
death. I ’ve just been having the funeral. 
Collins said she was going to leave. I guess 
she has gone by this time. Love could n’t find 
her anywhere, and the kitchen fire is out; Love 
said so. I ’m going to have lots of fun now that 
Collins has gone. I shall make chocolate fudge 
every morning, and ice-cream every afternoon. 
Do you like fudge?” 

“ H’m, I fancy so,” replied John Lough 
absent-mindedly. “ I ’m afraid you ’ve done a 
lot of mischief, child,” he added, wrinkling his 
fine forehead. “ I ’m not much of a house- 
keeper, to be sure; but that last sounds alarm- 
ingly dubious.” 

“ I don’t think it does at all,” retorted Hazel 
indignantly. “I can make delicious fudge; and 
I can easily learn ice-cream. One ought to 
learn something new every single day,” she 
199 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


went on, with gathering severity of tone and 
mien. “ I must say I ’m surprised at you, John 
Lough. Don’t you want me to improve?” 

“ Indeed, I do,” he said feelingly. “I ’ll just 
add one fact to your stock of useful knowledge 
now: never leave a scrap of honey near your 
hives. It completely demoralizes the bees — 
turns them into winged furies, you know.” 

“ I can’t see why, when they make it them- 
selves,” said Hazel. “And they were glad — I 
am sure they were glad.” 

“ No doubt,” he returned coolly. “They were 
as glad as a gang of sober, industrious, Italian la- 
borers would be if I should suddenly set down a 
barrel of gold dollars in their midst. Every one 
of those laborers would be engaged in honestly 
earning one of those coins for himself ; but the 
whole gang would instantly throw down their 
picks and shovels and hurl themselves on the 
barrel. And in less time than it takes to tell it 
we should have a howling mob of infuriated de- 
mons, ready to tear one another’s eyes out and 


200 


A BEE IN HER BONNET 


to clo battle with any intruder who happened 
that way.” 

“ Is that what happened to my bees when I 
gave them the honey-comb ?” 

“ Precisely. They are probably plundering 
each other’s hives by this time.” 

“Dear, dear!” ejaculated Hazel mournfully. 
“ I suppose they ’ll ruin everything. Is n’t there 
anything to do? — to make them stop, I mean.” 

“ Oh, they ’ll cool off after a bit,” he said re- 
assuringly. “ I wish I was as sure about Collins,’ 
he added, half to himself. 

“ You would n’t think of saying that if you 
knew her as I do,” observed Hazel. “ She ’s 
crosser than a whole hive of bees when she gets 
started. I should hate to have to get up and get 
breakfast, though, and I ’m sure I don’t know 
what Patrick will say.” 

At that very minute Patrick was standing in 
the door of the Sedgewick kitchen. His better 
half, wearing her awe-inspiring Sunday bonnet 
and clutching the handle of a satchel, sat in a 

/j — Wings and Fetters. 


201 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


wooden-bottomed chair coldly surveying the dis- 
order about her. “ You he my lawful wedded 
wife, that ’s what you be, Eliza Collins,” Mr. 
Miles was saying forcefully, if ungrammatically; 
“ an’ that you can’t get around, try as you may. 
You promised solemn, out of the prayer-book, to 
love, honor and — obey — me, Patrick Miles; an’ 
I don’t want you should forget it! I tell you to 
go an’ take off your bonnet this minute an’ get 
luncheon ready for the young ladies. Do you 
hear me, Eliza Collins?” 

“I ain’t deef, Patrick Miles,” observed the 
lady caustically. 

The old butler approached his wrinkled face 
to the rosy cheek of Mrs. Miles. “ Eliza,” he 
wdiispered, almost tearfully, “ you can’t get 
around the prayer-book nohow — you know you 
can’t; you ’ve got to obey me; but, for goodness’ 
sake, Eliza, don’t make it any harder for me 
than you have to!” 

The astute Mr. Miles planted a resounding 
kiss in the middle of the hard, pink cheek as he 


202 


A BEE IN HER BONNET 


spoke these ingratiating words. Whereat Mrs. 
Miles arose majestically. 

“ You are an idjit, Miles, sure,” she remarked 
enigmatically. “ Mind you, it ’s the prayer-book 
I’m obeying, not you” With that she withdrew 
to reappear shortly clad in her usual rustling 
armor of purple gingham. 

Luncheon was late that day, but its superior 
quality was noted by Hazel with satisfaction. 
“ I think it does Collins good to get a bee in her 
hair,” she observed pleasantly. “ I ’m going to 
tell her so after lunch.” 

203 









CHAPTER XII 


WINGS 

T O Love Gordon, pursuing the even tenor 
of her ways, there came no hint as yet 
of the singular experiences which were 
befalling her neighbor. The spring, merging 
rapidly into the glory of young summer, was all 
about her, yet it seemed as though stolen glimpses 
of its sweetness were all that fell to her lot. 
Poor Mrs. Sedgewick had fallen into a lament- 
ably low state of mind, which revealed itself 
with increasing insistance in her frail body. 
She complained that she had been buried alive 
in the old house ; that the perpetual soughing 
of the wind through the great trees gave her 
nervous chills ; that the odor of the spring 
flowers reminded her of funerals ; and, worse 


205 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


than all, she insisted that there must be new 
servants about the place and more of them. 
“ It was impossible,” she declared — after having 
reviewed for the hundredth time her manifold 
misfortunes — “to keep up the place with only two 
worn-out servants. Patrick was too old to work 
about the grounds as he was doing, and Collins 
was insufferably familiar and impertinent.” 

In vain Love brought all her powers of logic 
and persuasion to bear. “ Without Patrick and 
Collins we could not stay here at all, Aunt 
Margaret,” she said beseechingly. “ Don’t you 
understand that we could not afford it?” 

“ I am sure I told you that before we came,” 
cried Mrs. Sedgewick, with a feeble air of 
triumph. “ We certainly can not afford to stay 
here just to make a home for these ungrateful 
creatures. It would be much better for us to go 
abroad. To think how kind your poor uncle 
was to them for years and years, and yet, when I 
ordered Collins . to make a plain Nesselrode 
pudding for dessert yesterday, she was positively 

206 


WINGS 


insulting. She said she had n’t time. Think 
of that — to me!” 

“ But, dear Aunt Margaret,” persisted Miss 
Gordon, “ you know Collins has so many things 
to attend to — the laundry work and sweeping 
and—” 

“ That is exactly what I am telling you,” 
broke in Mrs. Sedge wick. “ We must either 
break up this forlorn housekeeping, or we must 
employ more competent servants. And Collins 
must go. I shall insist upon that.” 

And when Collins herself, her blue eyes shin- 
ing with wrath, called poor Love into the kitchen 
to unburden herself of her bottled-up emotions, 
the girl listened unprotesting, her hands folded 
wearily in her lap. 

“If it was just you an’ Miss Hazel, I ’d be 
gettin’ along fine, an’ you ’d be never bearin’ a 
word out of me mouth,” said Collins tearfully. 
“ But it ’s Nesselrode puddin’ for dessert, an’ 
omelette souflee for lunch, aiT six ruffled petti- 
coats waitin’ to be ironed, an’ a pile of linen as 
207 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


high as the table, an’ only one pair of lian’s to 
do it all.” 

“I could help with the ironing, Collins,” said 
Miss Gordon, sighing a little as she glanced 
down at her delicate hands already somewhat 
roughened by unaccustomed tasks. “ If I 
should get up a little earlier, and — ” 

“An’ ’deed, an’ you ’ll not be doin’ anything 
of the kind, Miss Love,” interrupted Collins, 
with a fine show of indignation. “ You ’re doin’ 
far too much now, an’ ivery day of the world, 
when it ’s out enjoyin’ yerself you should be. 
You was n’t brought up to be a nurse, nor yet 
a lady’s maid, miss.” 

“ Hush, Collins,” said Miss Gordon authorita- 
tively, “ you must not speak that way. I am 
only doing what is right and what I must do.” 
The girl turned a little sadly as if to leave the 
room. 

“ Could you be doin’ a favor for me this after- 
noon, Miss Love ? ” asked Collins with profuse 
and ingratiating smiles. “ It ’s ivery day of the 
208 


WINGS 


week that grocery boy forgets something ; an* 
to-day of all things if it was n’t the yeast-cake. 
You could carry it in your shopping-bag, miss, 
an’ no one ’ll be the wiser for it. I ’ll answer the 
madam’s bell while you ’re gone.” 

She w T atclied the slim figure in its blue and 
white gown with undisguised satisfaction as the 
girl walked briskly away in the delicious air. 
“ She ’ll be fiudin’ a fine husband some day, 
please God,” she murmured piously as she flew 
about her kitchen with renewed energy. 

It seemed to Love Gordon that the sky was 
never so deliciously blue, nor the drifting clouds 
so warmly white, the trees so fresh in all the 
bravery of their new foliage, and the common 
roadside flowers so exquisite. She stooped and 
gathered a handful of fragrant red clover blooms, 
whereat a riotous bumblebee rose into the bright 
air with a mellow, booming note of protest. The 
girl laughed aloud with the pure joy of living. 
All the cares and perplexities which seemed to 
weigh so heavily upon her slender shoulders 

209 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


slipped off for the nonce and were not. It was 
enough to be out and away in the J une weather* 
even if one’s errand led one only as far as the 
dingy grocery in the dingier town at the water’s 
edge. 

She chose the long way home. It led her 
along a picturesque old street, bordered with 
quaint, tumble-down houses, their weather-beaten 
gables half smothered in honeysuckle and roses, 
their front yards choked with overgrown lilacs 
and syringas. She walked slowly, the serenity 
of the perfect day reflecting itself in her eyes. 
She was remembering a little homily once spoken 
by the man who was the only father she had 
ever known. “ Never be afraid of what seems 
about to happen, child, ” he had said to her; 
“ there is nothing we need fear but our own 
fears. The skies of our future may change as 
suddenly as the weather.” 

She had been “afraid ” that very day, she 
told herself; but somehow the formless fears 
that crowded her near horizon seemed to have 


210 


WINGS 


vanished under the blue June heavens. “If 
Aunt Margaret would only come outdoors,” she 
murmured aloud. 

Then she paused and hesitated, as if half in- 
clined to turn a nearby corner into a street which 
would lead her quite away from home. And all 
because she had recognized the tall figure swing- 
ing leisurely toward her. 

“ Good-afternoon, Miss Gordon,” said John 
Lough by way of greeting, glancing with what 
the girl mistook for an expression of amusement 
at her flushed face. “Is n’t this a glorious day? 
But why are you walking so fast? Have the 
bees swarmed again, or is Miss Hazel waiting 
with a history lesson ?” 

Love replied, truthfully enough, that she had 
been doing an errand for Collins, and had loit- 
ered by the way. “ I just remembered that I 
must hurry home for reasons too numerous to 
mention — as Patrick says when he has n’t ex- 
actly arranged all his whys and wherefore,” she 
added, laughing. 


2 1 1 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


“ Did you suddenly remember all of those 
reasons when you saw me?” he asked, bending 
his tall head to catch the sparkle in the brown 
eyes under the drooping hat-brim. “ Because 
if you did, I will go away directly.” 

Miss Gordon protested politely. “ I have so 
many things to do,” she said with an unconscious 
little sigh. “I am quite the man of the house, 
you know.” 

“ Yes, I know,” he said gravely, his eyes still 
busy with her face. What he saw there forced 
the next words from his lips almost against his 
will. “ I wish I could do something to help,” 
he said in a low voice. “ It seems so selfish for 
me to be leading the easy, almost idle life that 
I do, while you — ” 

He broke off suddenly, and squared liis broad 
shoulders with an impatient shrug of protest 
against the world’s unyielding conventionalities. 
‘‘Why, in Heaven’s name,” he demanded almost 
roughly, “should I not say to you what is in 
my heart to say? I wish to be your friend; I 


212 


WINGS 


wish to do something to make your life easier. 
Do you not understand ? Why should we not 
help one another in this world ? Why should 
I not be able to say to you, Here am I — a strong 
man with more of everything than I know what 
to do with, while you, a delicate girl, are strug- 
gling under burdens too heavy for you? Let 
me take and carry some of them for you. The 
world says that I may pay a polite visit, or I 
may send a paltry basket of fruit or flowers! 
I can do nothing more. But what is the world 
to you and me ? I should be able to offer you 
a friendship that is worthy the word, and you 
should be able to accept it as fearlessly. It is 
all wrong — this conventionality. We must get 
down to the realities of living and helping one 
another in the old primal fashion.” 

He seemed talking more to himself than to 
her, and Love watched him, half frightened, yet 
half understanding his meaning. “ Would he 
offer her his purse ?” she wondered, and stiffened 
slightly at the thought. 

21 3 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


He perceived the involuntary lifting of the 
small head and laughed angrily. “They have 
done their best to spoil you, child,” he said 
abruptly ; “ but, thank God, they have n’t suc- 
ceeded! I shall not say what I wish I might 
because I have not forgotten that we are liv- 
ing in a century when it is well-bred and quite 
the thing to rescue a lady from drowning, but 
unconventional and quite impossible to keep her 
from working herself to death.” 

The girl looked squarely into his eyes. “ Do 
I look as if I were working myself to death?” 
she said, with a spice of malice in her tones. 
“ Or were you referring to some other unhappy 
j)erson of your acquaintance?” 

He met her gaze masterfully. “ I meant you,” 
he said softly. 

They walked along in silence for several min- 
utes. He seemed lost in reverie and quite unaware 
of the fact that his companion had quickened her 
steps, and that her face was deeply flushed and 
very sober. The girl’s mind was in a tumult ; 

214 


WINGS 


her thoughts flew hither and yon like flocks of 
startled birds. Of one thing only she was dis- 
tinctly sure and that was that she was very 
happy. She was also dimly aware that back of 
this unreasoning happiness waited a host of teas- 
ing doubts and questions which would descend 
upon her without mercy once she was away from 
the strong, protecting presence at her side. 

They had reached the winding drive and were 
walking under the shadows of the old trees. He 
looked down at her once more. Why Love — 
Love!” he exclaimed; “why did you not tell 
me I was walking too fast? I was thinking, 
child, such delightful thoughts, and they carried 
me away like wings. I may be your friend ; 
may I not, Love?” 

How she would have answered him he never 
knew, for a flying little figure in a pink gown 
hurled itself precipitately upon her. “Oh,Lov- 
ina Gordon, I thought you would never come ! 
And how splendid that you are here, too, John 
Lough ! I have been looking everywhere for 
2I 5 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


you both. My -bees have swarmed and Patrick 
is playing on them with the hose ; and Collins 
is crying in the kitchen because mother has 
given her warning; and oh, Lovina Gordon, 
what shall we do?*’ 

The young lady’s face was a study. Involun- 
tarily she glanced up at her new-found friend. 
He saw and answered the appeal in the innocent 
eyes. “We ’ll attend to the bees first,” he said 
promptly. “Collins won’t swarm yet awhile.” 

Hazel was deep in some sort of mental calcu- 
lation. “ We shall want another hive,” she said 
at last. “Patrick says I sha n’t have a nail-keg; 
I wanted one. And I wanted some molasses to 
wash it out with; but Collins is crosser than a 
whole bundle of kindling-wood, and I did n’t dare 
go near the kitchen. How much do hives cost, 
John Lough?” 

“About a dollar and seventy-five cents,” he 
replied, with an air of shrewdness. “‘But I ’ll 
tell you what I ’ll do, I ’ll trade the hive for 
queen cells. I want some for scientific investiga- 

216 


WINGS 


tions, and tliey are hard to get in a well man- 
aged hive/’ 

“Isn’t my hive well managed?” demanded 
Hazel. “ What ought I to do that I have n’t 
done?” 

“ I can’t tell till we ’ve looked into it,” he said 
gravely. “ Will you put on a bee-veil and assist 
in the ceremony?” 

“Of course I will!” cried Hazel. “ I want to 
do it all myself. Oh, how good you are and 
how much I like you, John Lough!” 

“That ’s unconventional and as it should be,” 
he murmured in his companion’s ear, as the child 
darted away. “When will you say that to me, 
Love?” 

The girl opened her lips as if to reply. “Don’t 
tell me that I have n’t any right to call you 
that,” he went on, hurriedly. “I know we 
have n’t known each other long; but we shall, 
and it is such a beautiful name — it is so like you. 
I have thought of you that way from the first.” 

“They ’re there yet!” announced Hazel, dash- 

74 — Wings and Fetters. 2 1 7 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


ing back like a small whirlwind in petticoats. 
“ But it does seem to me that you are taking 
such a time to walk up the hill. Your cheeks 
are as red as they can be, Lovina Gordon, and 
you look — why, you look as if you were going 
to cry, or something! Have you been being 
dignified and disagreeable to John Lough? For 
you can be, you darling, you know you can. 
Has she, John Lough ?” 

“Not a bit,” he said cheerfully. “But I 
walked too fast, and talked too fast perhaps.” 

“ I wish I ’d been there to hear,” said Hazel, 
eyeing him with rapturous affection. “ I like to 
hear what you say ! ” 

218 


CHAPTER XIII 
A month's WARNING 

T HE bees were patiently waiting for tlieir 
scouts to make arrangements for a new 
residence. They hung in a great pen- 
dulous cluster from the drooping boughs of a 
small evergreen tree near the hive. Patrick 
stood at a respectful distance, bringing the fine 
spray from his hose to bear upon the tree, his 
face wearing a troubled, preoccupied expression, 
which found vent in an occasional deep sigh. 
Sounds of belicose activity issued from the near- 
by kitchen windows. 

“It s Collins," whispered Hazel confidentially 
to John Lough. “ She always sets things down 
hard when she 's mad. I guess Patrick is more 
219 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


afraid of her than he is of the bees; I know 
I am.” 

Love Gordon had disappeared within doors. 
The young man could hear her gentle tones, 
and the loud, wrathful voice of the offended 
kitchen majesty as she made answer. He shook 
his head dubiously. “ Patrick is a wise man,” 
he murmured. Then to the old man himself : 
“ You have treed a fine swarm there, Patrick.” 

“Yes, sir,” said Patrick lugubriously. “Miss 
Hazel is a great bee-keeper. She caught tliim at 
it, sir, just as they was comin , out of the hive. 
They ’d ha’ been far an' away a fine day like this; 
but she was too smart for tliim, sir.” 

“ Is the queen there ? Can I see her ? ” asked 
the little girl, delightedly surveying the golden- 
brown ball, which filled the air with its low, 
anxious humming. 

“The queen is there certainly, in the very 
heart of her nation, but I don’t know whether 
we shall see her to-day or not. Perhaps we may 
find the young queen in the other hive.” 


220 


A MONTH’S WARNING 


“ The young queen ? ” repeated Hazel won- 
deringly. 

“ It is the old, experienced queen who leads 
out the young bees from the parent hi ve,” lie re- 
plied ; “ the young queen stays behind with the 
grown-up workers. They divide their stock of 
wisdom, you see.” 

He was working busily as he spoke, and now 
summoned Hazel, well protected by veil and 
gloves, to assist in making the new hive ready 
for occupancy. “ We must move the first hive 
a little to one side of its old position,” he ex- 
plained, “ so that the workers who are out in the 
field will come into the new hive and help to 
make the swarm as strong as possible.” 

“ But what will the young queen do if she is 
left all alone ? ” asked Hazel. 

“She won’t be left alone.” He was lifting 
the cover from the old hive as he spoke. “See, 
there are plenty of workers here. But it is just 
as I thought : here are one, two, three, four — 
unopened queen-cells ! ” 


221 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


“Are those funny, thimble-shaped things 
queen-cells ? What are queen-cells, any- 
way ?" 

“ They are the queen-cradles or nurseries, 
of which I commenced to tell you the other 
evening. When the bees want a new queen, 
they select one or more cells containing young 
worker larvae and greatly enlarge them — as you 
see. Then they begin to supply the inmate with 
that mysterious royal jelly. It is called royal 
jelly because a common larva fed exclusively 
upon it develops into a queen. Just what it is 
made of, and why this happens, our wisest stu- 
dents can only guess/' 

“ Did anyone ever taste it ? ” inquired Hazel. 

“Yes, I did once," he replied. “It has a 
very rich and curious flavor, something between 
cream, quince jelly and honey, slightly sour, 
and — well, I don’t think you would care to eat 
much of it; it is only meant for royal prin- 
cesses like these that you see sealed up in their 
cradles." 


222 


A MONTH’S WARNING 


“What are they doing in there?” asked the 
little girl curiously. 

“ Really, I don’t know,” he said, shaking his 
head gravely. “We are peering about the door 
of one of nature’s most closely-guarded secrets. 
I have opened these cells at every stage after 
they were sealed till they were ready to be 
hatched, and first I saw just a common larva — 
like this one, perhaps a little larger and plumper. 
After two or three days a head began to develop ; 
later one can distinguish some legs carefully 
folded up, and at the very last a pair of filmy 
wings appear as if by magic. These princesses 
are pale and motionless as the dead at this stage, 
but they are really very much alive. A clever 
bee-keeper once put some glass cells over the 
royal larvae ; the bees sealed them up as usual. 
And so he was able to see all that there was to 
see. But you must remember, child, that we 
only see the outside of things ; what we cannot 
see is the wonderful, invisible cause back of it 
all. If it were possible to lift off the top of my 

223 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


head while I am talking to you, you might 
look at the convolutions of my brain, and ob- 
serve the changes that are going on there; but 
how much of the real thinking could you see?” 

“ Do you mean/’ said Hazel, her dark eyes 
dilating with wonder, “that the thinking is going 
on back of everything that we see? Who is 
thinking ? I know/’ she added, in a half- 
wliisper. “ It must be — God.” 

The two were silent before the amazing force 
of this thought. Ho new one indeed to John 
Lough, but one of ever increasing wonder and 
solemn joy. 

The silence was broken by an eager whisper 
from Hazel. “Is that the queen?” She was 
pointing to a bee much larger than the others, 
which was moving slowly over the exposed comb, 
her long, elegant body a clear golden-brown 
color. 

“ Yes, that is certainly the queen!” He lifted 
her gently and placed her in Hazel’s outstretched 
hand. “ Even if you wore no glove she would 

224 


A MONTH’S WARNING 


not sting you,” lie said. “ The queens are fur- 
nished with stings, to be sure, and use them, too, 
but only on rival queens. Yet our royal lady 
will sometimes bite quite savagely, if frightened 
or roughly handled.” 

Hazel allowed the stately queen to escape onto 
the comb, where she was received with manifest 
joy by the workers. 

John Lough was working rapidly now. He 
lifted three or four of the brood frames from the 
old hive, carefully brushed off the clinging bees, 
then replaced them with unused sections from 
hive number two. The brood comb having been 
cautiously inserted in the new hive, the next 
step was to cut the branch from which the swarm 
was hanging. He placed this on the alighting 
board of the empty hive, and presently, with a 
little urging from behind with the smoker, the 
bees began to troop into the entrance like well- 
trained soldiers. Very soon all had disap- 
peared within and the empty branch was tossed 
aside. 


225 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


“ There !” exclaimed the experienced bee- 
keeper with an air of satisfaction, “if I am not 
very much mistaken there will be great rejoic- 
ing in this snug mansion for the next few hours, 
after which the business of honey-gathering will 
be resumed with ardor.” 

“ But what will happen in the other hive when 
the rest of the queens hatch out?” asked Hazel 
dubiously. 

“One of two or three things,” he told her. 
“The reigning queen will perhaps break into 
the closed cells and sting the sleeping princesses 
to death one after the other ; or she will wait till 
they emerge from their chambers and do battle 
with them; or she may conclude to leave the 
hive with as many of the young workers as she 
can induce to go with her. Sometimes it hap- 
pens that every bee in the hive is ready and 
anxious to find new quarters, then begins what 
is called after-swarming, and it is one of the 
most trying experiences of the bee-keeper. I 
once had seven swarms come off one after another 

226 


A MONTH’S WARNING 


in rapid succession from one hive. Five of them 
got away altogether and were never heard of 
afterward ; swarms number six and seven were 
no bigger than my closed fist. I induced them 
to unite with another colony by a little diplo- 
macy. Many bee-keepers clip one set of wings 
from their queens, which, of course, cripples the 
royal mother so that she is not able to lead the 
swarm away. I could never bring myself to muti- 
late the beautiful creature so cruelly, so content 
Ayself with arranging matters as we have done 
to-day. Most of the bees will go to the new hive, 
and those left behind may sensibly conclude that 
they can afford no more swarming this season; 
or if the young queen be of a belligerent turn of 
mind the question will have been solved before 
to-morrow in the way that I told you. We can 
only wait and see.” 

The bees having been comfortably disposed 
of, Patrick, who had been eyeing the young 
man thoughtfully during the foregoing opera- 
tions, approached him with an air of profound 
227 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


respect. “ Could you be taking a look at my 
orchard for half an hour, sir?” he said, in a 
low voice. “ I ’d like a word with you, if you 
please.” 

John Lough glanced at the old man’s troubled 
face. “ I ’ll be with you in a few minutes,” he 
said kindly. 

Patrick walked slowly away toward the peach 
orchard. Hazel’s dark eyes followed him. “He 
wants to brag about his strawberry plants and 
his young trees,” she said wisely. “ He is as 
proud of those trees as a peacock; though I 
can’t think why, for they have n’t a sign of a 
peach on them. I heard Patrick talking to 
Love last night. * If we can hold on this year,’ 
he said, ‘ next year ’ll see us in smoother water 
along of the peach trees, please God.’ Patrick 
does mix his metaphors so ; but there is n’t 
much use in trying to teach him. Wliat have 
strawberry vines and peach trees to do with 
smooth water, for example?” 

“What, indeed?” murmured John Lough, 
228 


A MONTH’S WARNING 


drawing liis brows together perplexedly. “If 
you will see to picking up the bee-veils and 
smokers and other traps, and give them to 
Myers when he comes after them, Hazel, I will 
just stroll down and look at these wonderful 
peach trees.” 

“ He does n’t want me to go with him,” said 
Hazel to herself, with a penetration beyond her 
years. “ It seems to me ever so many people 
are getting — well, queer. I do hope I am not 
going to be disappointed in John Lough! Lov- 
ina Gordon is certainly getting queerer every 
day of her life!” 

Patrick was wandering among the slender 
stems of his young orchard with unseeing eyes. 
“It ’s just this way, sir,” he began without pre- 
amble, as the young man approached. “ Eliza 
Collins is my wedded wife — to have an’ to hold, 
as the book puts it, till death do us part. She ’s 
got a hot temper, Collins has, an’ I don’t think 
any less of her for it. She ’s made that way, 
an’ she can’t help it. But when the madam 

229 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


tells her to take a month’s warning an’ go, why, 
where do I come in? An’ what ’ll become of 
Miss Love an’ the child ? I can’t leave ’em, 
nohow ; an’ what they ’d do without Eliza Col- 
lins is more ’an I know. I hope you ’ll excuse 
me, sir, for speaking this right out — a family 
matter as it is. But I ’m not mistaken in thinkin’ 
you ’re a true friend of thim as has n’t many 
friends, am I, sir?” 

“ I want to be their best friend — if they will 
have me,” said John Lough, seriously. 

“ Bless you for that, sir; there’s no doubt 
that they need a friend like yourself, sir. And 
more friendly young ladies than Miss Love an’ 
Miss Hazel ’ud be hard to find. But Madam 
Sedgewick — now.” He stopped to wipe his 
forehead with some confusion. “It ’s come hard 
on my lady,” he went on apologetically ; “ Mr. 
Sedgewick went sudden, an’ he was one of the 
best men God ever planned. Did you know 
him, sir?” 

“I had only a slight acquaintance with Mr. 

230 


A MONTH’S WARNING 


Sedgewick,” replied the young man. “But I 
can well imagine he was all that you have said. 
It is little wonder that his widow is almost 
unbalanced by his loss and the sudden change 
in her surroundings.” 

“That ’s just it, sir,” said Patrick gratefully; 
“ you could n’t expect to plant an orange tree 
from Florida among my peaches here an’ see it 
flourish, could you, sir? Oranges ain’t planned 
by the Almighty for hard frosts ; no more are 
some folks. They just wilt right down an’ pin- 
die away, an’ ’t ain’t their fault ’at they can’t 
stan’ up through the snows an’ freezin’ winds 
like these fine young trees of mine. There ’s 
Miss Love now, she ’s made for all kin’s of 
weather — bless her sweet heart! Why, sir, I 
could n’t tell you the half of my young lady’s 
goodness an’ kindness if I begun now an’ talked 
all night ! An’ I ’ve knowed her since she was 
no higher ’an my knee.” 

Something in the face of his listener must 
have encouraged the old man to proceed, for he 
231 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


certainly did go on to discourse at length upon 
liis favorite theme. “ Somehow I can’t talk this 
way to Eliza Collins,” he added, rather shame- 
facedly. “ Collins is terrible fond of Miss Love, 
too ; but she says she don’t believe in bowin’ 
down to no idols. She told me yesterday I 
was n’t much better ’an a cannibal heathen when 
it come to Miss Love.” 

John Lough laughed outright. “ I hope it 
won’t go as far as that,” he said ; “ there are some 
others who would like to have a share in the 
aesthetic worship.” 

“ Collins is a very religious woman,” observed 
Patrick seriously. “ She goes regular to ’Pisco- 
pal service twice of a Sunday, does Eliza Collins, 
an’ what she don’t know about all kinds of hea- 
then ain’t worth mentionin’. But what would 
you be advisin’ about this ’ere predicament 
I ’m in? My wife is for packin’ up an’ leavin’ 
tliis very day. She says I ’ll have to go, too. 
But of course I can’t leave the family. I 
promised the master I ’d stan’ by, an’ I ’m goin’ 
232 


A MONTH’S WARNING 


to do it. It ’s likely enough the madam ’ull send 
me, too. She never cared for my ways about the 
place, an’ I ’ve knowed it better ’an anybody 
else this long time ; but Miss Love can’t be takin’ 
in anybody into her house. It would n’t do, sir.” 

“ It certainly would not,” agreed the young man 
with decision. “ I have n’t much acquaintance 
with Mrs. Sedgewick,” he went on, after a short 
period of reflection, “ and I imagine my advice 
would not be very cordially received in that 
quarter at present. But I ’ll venture to say that 
Miss Gordon will have gone far to pacify your 
excellent wife before you see her again. Sup- 
pose the matter be allowed to rest in statu quo . 
In a month’s time many things may happen. 
"Who knows, Patrick, everything may be hand- 
somely straightened out by that time.” 

“You don’t know Eliza Collins, sir,” said 
Patrick lugubriously. “Nor yet the madam. 
But I ’ll do as you say, sir. That is, I ’ll do 
nothing at all for the present; that ’s my notion 
of your meaning, sir.” 

jj — IVings and Fetters . 


233 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


“ That ’s it exactly. Do nothing at all,” said 
John Lough. He walked away with a curious 
smile in his dark eyes. “A month’s warning,” 
he repeated softly. “ Much may happen in 
a month’s time. Much shall happen in a month ! ” 
234 


CHAPTER XIV 
FETTERS 

A CIRCUMSTANCE which our masterful 
poet did not plan for in his month of 
probation occurred that very night. 
Mrs. Sedgewick was reposing among her pillows 
in the daintiest of lace-trimmed robes after a 
very serious nervous attack, through which Love 
had attended her with anxious devotion. 

“ I don’t know what I should do without you, 
Love,” the poor lady had whispered pathetically. 
“ You are positively my only comfort ! ” 

“Dear Aunt Margaret, how happy it makes 
me to hear you say that ! ” said the girl, stoop- 
ing to caress the delicate fingers which still 
sparkled sumptuously with gems. 

Mrs. Sedgewick looked at her fixedly. “Does 
235 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


it, Love ? ” she said after a pause. “ Sometimes 
I have thought that you would be glad if I were 
laid beside your uncle. I am sure I must be a 
great care at times. ,, 

“A precious care, darling aunty ! ” cried the 
girl with emotion. “ You know I wish for 
nothing in the world so much as to make you 
happy.” A scarlet flush crept into her cheeks 
as she spoke, and her honest eyes drooped a 
little with the remembrance of the foolish, un- 
reasoning joy of the afternoon. 

“ But you might wish to leave me some day,” 
persisted the invalid fretfully. “ I wish you 
would promise me that you will not. Promise 
me, Love ! ” 

The girl hesitated for the space of a heart- 
beat or two — slow and heavy heart-beats. 

Two big tears stole out from the invalid’s dark 
eyes and hung trembling on her long lashes. 
“ I do promise you, Aunt Margaret,” said Love 
firmly. “ I will never leave you. How could 
you think that I would?” 

236 


FETTERS 


“ I thought you could hardly be so ungrate- 
ful,” syllabled Mrs. Sedgewick faintly. “ But I 
have had an uneasy feeling of late that some- 
body or something was trying — ” She paused 
and drew her delicate brows together. “ There 
could be no one — unless — Have you seen 
much of that John Lough lately, Love ! Does 
he come here often ? ” 

“ Only occasionally to help Hazel with her 
bees,” replied the girl, with a deepening of the 
guilty flush in her soft cheeks. “ I have only 
seen him once since you spoke to me, Aunt Mar- 
garet,” she added hastily. 

“ He might do very well for Hazel after a 
while,” observed Mrs. Sedgewick thoughtfully. 
“ I should like to see Hazel well married, and 
I am sure I don’t know how she is to see any- 
thing of society in this dreadful place.” 

“Hazel is so young,” murmured Miss Gordon. 

“Of course she is — a mere child,” said Mrs. 
Sedgewick somewhat sharply; “but a few years 
will make her into a woman. You must re- 


237 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


member that, Love. I do hope you are being 
very careful about her lessons. The poor 
child is absolutely cut off from every pleasure 
and advantage.” 

“ I am doing my best, Aunt Margaret,” said 
the girl, in a voice which would tremble a little. 

“ I suppose you are,” acquiesced Mrs. Sedge- 
wick with a deep sigh. “ It must have been a 
special Providence that made your poor uncle 
take so much pains with your education. I re- 
member I used to think that he was foolishly 
particular. But one never can tell.” 

After a long silence she again called the girl 
to her side. “You know, Love, you have 
promised to stay with me always,” she said, 
fixing her eyes anxiously on the serious young 
face. 

“ Yes, Aunt Margaret, I promised.” 

“ Pray, don’t look as if you were taking the 
veil, child; you know I shall always be your 
best friend. See, I am going to give you this 
ring to wear. I have meant to make you a 
238 


FETTERS 


present for some time; you certainly deserve 
one.” 

“ No — no — not tliat, Aunt Margaret ! I don’t 
want any present. I — ” 

“ But I insist, my dear child,” said Mrs. 
Sedgewick authoritatively. “ I shall give you this 
ring to wear always, and only we two shall know 
its meaning. Remember, you are not to tell 
any one of this little talk of ours. Kiss me, 
dear!” She drew the girl’s shrinking hand 
toward her and placed upon it a flashing dia- 
mond. “ There,” she said complacently ; “that 
is one of my very handsomest rings. Your uncle 
gave it to me on my last birthday.” 

Love looked at it through hot tears. Then, 
to Mrs. Sedgewiek’s utter amazement and dis- 
pleasure, she burst into a passion of weeping, 
and hurriedly left the room. 

That lady passed some uncomfortable minutes 
during the interval which elapsed before the 
girl crept back to her bedside with a faltering 
little apology. But, on the whole, she congrat- 
239 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


ulated lierself upon her far-seeing wisdom and 
acumen. “Even if the girl has foolishly allowed 
her fancy to stray after that singular young 
man, I have done her a real kindness in putting 
a stop to it,” she told herself. “He would never 
be attracted by a portionless girl like Love, who 
has neither beauty nor talent.” 

Just how indispensable to her own comfort 
that pair of willing hands, those seemingly tireless 
feet, that gentle voice might become, the invalid 
was daily discovering ; and the list of self-im- 
posed tasks grew longer day by day, as the girl 
gave herself more and more wholly to her ser- 
vice of love. Mrs. Sedgewick’s voice was very 
soft and sweet, her manner perfection; but her 
young nurse soon came to understand and to 
dread the glance of veiled displeasure, the of- 
fended silences, which were her aunt’s sole pun- 
ishment for duties forgotten or clumsily per- 
formed. 

The days had begun to slip by in that swift, 
silent fashion which is not, after all, the sole 


240 


FETTERS 


recompense of a monotonous existence. A cer- 
tain peace and satisfaction, born of fidelity to 
duty, possessed the girl so utterly that she was 
scarcely startled when, one day, John Lough 
boldly demanded her presence in the drawing- 
room in stereotyped fashion. 

Mrs. Sedgewick was comfortably ensconced 
in an easy chair, listening drowsily to the last 
popular novel, which Love was reading aloud 
when the young man’s card was brought up. 

“ It ’s a regular pasteboard call, Lovina Gor- 
don!” said Hazel, peeping over her shoulder. 
“ You ought to stop long enough to put on your 
prettiest gown. Do put it on — your white cash- 
mere, I mean, so he can see how sweet you look 
in it! I ’ll run down and talk to him about the 
bees till you come.” 

“ Be quiet, Hazel,” said Mrs. Sedgewick dis- 
approvingly. “ You talk altogether too much 
for so young a girl. I think I shall go down 
myself. I am feeling particularly well to-day. 
Love, my dear, you are quite suitably dressed ; 

241 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


you may come down with me just as you 
>> 

are. 

The girl glanced at her blue and white ging- 
ham with an abstracted smile. She was thinking 
of a certain afternoon, which already seemed 
curiously long ago, when she had worn that 
gown and walked under the blossoming trees at 
John Lough’s side. Everything was changed 
since then. The keen, cold sparkle of the dia- 
mond she wore had come to mean much to her. 
It seemed to bind her to the dearly-remembered 
past as well as to the unsmiling future. She 
fancied her uncle’s grave face as looking with 
satisfaction upon her patient service of love — a 
service which would perhaps continue till the 
mist of years rested in frost upon her head. It 
had seemed easy of late to forget everything but 
the duties of the hour — to move with tranquillity 
in the narrow circle of the invalid’s chamber. 
But her young heart gave a great and unex- 
pected throb as she laid her slim fingers in the 
young man’s outstretched hand. 

242 


FETTERS 


“We are, of course, living very quietly at 
present,” Mrs. Seclgewick was saying sweetly. 
“We have met very few of the persons who 
live in the village below. The clergyman and 
his wife called last week, I believe; did they 
not, my dear? I was not able to see them. I 
really cannot interest myself in outside matters. 
But clergymen are so insistent. Of course, it 
is their business to be so, and one cannot criti- 
cise them for a certain amount of zeal. This 
person actually urged that Hazel should come 
to Sunday-school ; and he wanted my niece to 
sing in the village choir. That was it, was it 
not, Love?” 

Mrs. Sedgewick did not wait for a reply ; she 
was keenly aware of the way in which her 
visitor’s grey eyes turned to the girl’s face, and 
of the faint answering flash which sprang to 
meet them. “ I must thank you again for the 
very great pleasure you have given my little 
Hazel,” she went on graciously. “ She has 
talked of little else save of you and her bees for 
243 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


weeks past. And her delight was unbounded 
when Patrick brought in some boxes of really 
nice honey yesterday. It is truly poet’s food, is 
it not ? When one thinks of the nectar in the 
thousands of flowers gathered drop by drop into 
the delicate cells. I always taste it for the 
delightful associations’ sake, though I am not at 
all fond of sweets.” 

John Lough had been gravely regarding his 
hostess as her smooth voice rippled on ; but now 
he turned his eyes with a sort of deliberate deter- 
mination upon the modest figure at her side. 
“ Do you enjoy watching the bees as well as 
your cousin does, Miss Gordon ? ” he asked. 
“ I have fancied that you had lost your interest 
in them.” 

Mrs. Sedgewick drew the girl’s hand affection- 
ately into her own — the hand on which shone 
the tell-tale diamond. “ My niece is a very busy 
girl just now, Mr. Lough,” she said gently. 
“She has little time in which to watch those 
interesting pets of Hazel’s.” She patted the 
244 


FETTERS 


unresisting hand which lay in hers, and the 
brilliant stone upon it shot out scarlet and azure 
fires toward the questioning eyes which were 
drawn to this pretty by-play of affection in 
which precious stones seemed to play so important 
a part. 

It was a hint broad enough to have dis- 
couraged most experimental suitors, Mrs. Sedge- 
wick told herself. She was becoming uncomfort- 
ably aware that there was something more than she 
had known between these young people, and the 
fact roused her to indignation. “ The girl lias 
deceived me,” she decided — the while she talked 
smoothly and gracefully on a wide variety of 
topics. 

Love Gordon sat shy and silent. “ I have 
promised/’ she was thinking, “ and I am glad. 
I know just what I must always do, and that is 
a comfort. He has asked to be my friend, but 
there will be no room in my life for friends — 
and no need.” A certain aloofness in her 
manner, which yet left the impression of a 
245 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


patlietic wistfulness, impressed liim as lie rose to 
take his leave. 

He presently found his mind turning with a 
new regret to his past. “ If mother were here,” 
he reflected, “ she would understand that woman . 
I do not. I wonder just what she was driving 
at, anyhow?” By which it will be seen that 
the delicate significance of Mrs. Sedgewick’s tone 
and gesture had been utterly wasted upon this 
obtuse masculine person, who had very dim and 
unworldly ideas concerning his own state of 
mind, and to whom the etiquette and formalities 
of a fashionable engagement were wholly 
unknown. 

“ I wish to see her oftener — to see her every 
day,” he was conscious of thinking. And presently, 
somewhat to his own amazement, he found him- 
self planning with positive cunning to accom- 
plish these new-born but urgent desires. But 
no nun in closely guarded cloister was ever more 
difficult of access than the object of his longing 
thoughts seemed on a sudden to have become. 

246 


FETTERS 


“ Where does Miss Gordon keep herself now- 
adays?” he demanded bluntly of Hazel — this 
when the two were watching the bees flocking 
joyously into their hives laden with the golden 
pollen of the young chestnut blossoms. 

“ They look exactly as if they were wearing 
little yellow knickerbockers ! ” remarked Hazel 
irrelevantly. “ Do see those absurd little scamps 
just going in. They must be young bees; don’t 
you think so ? ” 

“ I have n’t seen her for two weeks,” he went 
on discontentedly. “ Does she never go out to 
walk, or — ” 

“Do you mean the queen bee?” asked Hazel 
innocently. “ I thought you said the queen bees 
hardly ever went out. They have to stay in and 
govern, don’t they?” 

“ I was speaking of your cousin, Miss Gor- 
don,” said the young man, trying to look indif- 
ferent, with indifferent results. 

“Oh, you mean Love. I was so interested in 
watching the bees, I did n’t — Oh, do see those 
247 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


two baying a fight! Don’t you suppose one of 
them has made a mistake and gotten into the 
wrong hive? The hives do look so exactly alike, 
you know. I don’t see how they can tell which 
is their own. Or perhaps that one wants to get 
some honey that does n’t belong to him. Did n’t 
you tell me that they go into each other’s hives 
sometimes and steal honey?” 

“ Not when the honey-flow is abundant — as it 
is now,” said John Lough patiently. “How 
would you like to take a drive with me, Hazel? 
Ask your mother if you may, and I will take 
you to see the lighthouse.” 

“ How perfectly splendid ! ” cried the little 
girl. “ I ’ll go ask mother this minute.” 

“ Stop a bit,” he said hesitatingly. “ Won’t 
you ask Miss Gordon if she will go, too? It is 
such a beautiful day I think she would enjoy 
it.” 

Hazel returned in an astonishingly short 
time, freshly frocked and wearing a very be- 
coming hat, of which she was prettily con- 
248 


FETTERS 


scious. “ I did n’t keep you waiting long, did 
I?” she asked brightly. “It was so lovely of 
you to ask me. Mother said she thought it was 
very kind ; she thought the change would do 
me good. I am studying so hard now — you ’ve 
no idea! And it is really vacation. Don’t you 
think it is too bad to make me work in the sum- 
mer ? Love says I got so behind in my work 
this spring that I can only have the month of 
August this year.” 

“Will — ah — Miss Gordon go with us?” he 
asked. 

“ Love? No; Love is busy sewing the lace on 
a muslin wrapper for mother. It is the sweetest 
thing — pale blue and all ruffles, and every one 
of the ruffles edged with lace. Love sews so 
nicely. I hate sewing. Mother always looks 
pretty when she is sick. She says she simply 
will not degenerate into a frowsy invalid.” 

The young man looked dangerous. “Does 
Miss Gordon play the dressmaker, then, as well 
as trained nurse and — ” He stopped short and 

lb — Wmgs and Fetters. 2 aq 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


bit his lip. “Here comes Myers with the trap,” 
he concluded, with a frown. 

“You look as cross as if you were obliged to 
go all by yourself,” said Hazel, seating herself in 
the vehicle with a grand display of fluffy ruffles. 
“ There is n’t a thing that Lovina Gordon can’t 
do,” she added triumphantly as the horses started 
off at a brisk pace. “ She ’s every bit as strict 
with my lessons as Miss Denton or Mademoiselle, 
or any of the teachers at Miss Porter’s. I just 
have to learn more, because you see I must recite 
every bit of the lesson every single day. Some- 
times, at school, if you look very intelligent when 
there ’s a part you know, and just fix your 
mind on the teacher, she will call on you for 
that very part; and then, of course, you ’ll recite 
it perfectly and get a splendid mark. When, 
if she had called on you for the part just after 
or just before, perhaps you ’d get only seventy, 
or maybe a zero. I used to do that way with 
Miss Patrick, our history teacher, and it worked 
every time. 1 did n’t invent it, though; an 
250 


FETTERS 


awfully clever girl in our school named Gail 
Prentice invented it. IPs a splendid invention, 
too, if one has the right kind of a teacher !” 

“ But Miss Gordon is n’t the right kind of a 
teacher, eh?” 

“ Not for that, I can tell you ! She seems to 
know by magic just what I don’t know, and 
there ’s not a bit of use in trying to look intelli- 
gent with her. Mother says she is so glad Love 
lias such a good, solid education ; because now 
she can’t afford to send me to Miss Porter’s or 
any nice school in town. And, of course, she 
w r ould n’t think of having me go to any of the 
schools over here.” 

“Why not?” said John Lough rather crossly. 

I went to the schools here when I was a boy, 
and they are much better now than they were 
then.” 

“ Of course, it ’s altogether different with a 
boy,” said Miss Hazel superbly. “ It does n’t 
make so much difference where they go to 
school. That ’s what mother thinks. She says 
251 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


if I was a boy slie should send me to the high 
school. And I wish I was one for forty other 
reasons ! ” 

“When do you recite your lessons?” he 
asked. 

“Arithmetic from ten to eleven — that is, if 
Love is through dressing mother at that time; 
but as near ten as possible. Then French for 
half an hour. Sometimes we converse while 
Love makes the dessert. She does that every 
day now to pacify Collins. Then, after lunch, 
I have English and history. At dinner we 
always speak in French, except when mother is 
down. She says it makes her nervous to hear 
my idioms. Love is always having to correct 
me. It does seem as though the person who 
invented the French language must have been 
crazy ; the idioms are so absurd ! ” 

“When does Miss Gordon go out to walk?” 
he asked after a silence, during which Hazel 
was manifestly enjoying the swift motion through 
the invigorating salt air. 

252 


FETTERS 


“ She does n’t go to walk ; but she nearly 
always goes to market,” replied the little girl. 
Her eyes were fixed on the graceful motions of 
a pair of gulls which were sailing overhead. 
“ Are n’t they the prettiest things when the sun 
shines on their feathers?” 

“ Yes. But what time does Miss Gordon go 
to market?” he persisted. “ I have a particular 
reason for asking.” 

Hazel turned her bright eyes curiously upon 
his anxious face. “ Why, how funny ! ” she 
exclaimed. “Why in the world should you 
want to know what time Lovina Gordon goes 
to market? Do you want her to pick out your 
chickens and things? Mother says she does 
that even better than Patrick, and Patrick has 
such lots of other things to do. Love likes to 
go; she says the morning is the very best time 
to be out of doors. She nearly always goes 
before breakfast, and is back in time to arrange 
mother’s tray and make her chocolate.” 

• 253 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


“ H’m!” said John Lough in a tone of min- 
gled displeasure and satisfaction. 

“I had the loveliest time!” exclaimed the 
little girl, casting herself into her cousin’s arms 
upon her return. “I do think John Lough is 
a ‘ chevalier sans peur et sans reproach’ and you 
can’t call that gushing, Lovina Gordon ! It ’s 
a classical quotation ; so there ! But sometimes 
he does ask the queerest questions. What do 
you think he wanted to know, and insisted upon 
knowing? I had to laugh !” 

“ I ’m sure I can’t guess, dear,” said Miss 
Gordon soberly. 

“Why, he wanted to know what time you 
went to market in the morning. I asked him 
if he was going to ask you to pick out his chick- 
ens and things. He did n’t say.” 

“Why, Hazel, dear, what an answer! But 
how could he know that I go to market?” 

“I suppose I told him; I ’ve forgotten. We 
were talking about my studies, and I told him 
exactly how strict you are, ^ou dear, and how 
254 


FETTERS 


hard I have to work. I think he was sorry for 
me. He likes me very much, John Lough does; 
and perhaps he intends to tell you that you are 
making me work too hard. I know he thought 
so from the way he looked when I was telling 
him about it.” 


25s 














» 











CHAPTER XV 


A RAINY DAY 

L OVE Gordon awoke tlie next morning to 
tlie tune of swift-pattering drops and 
the ecstatic rain-song of robins swaying 
in the dripping tree-tops. The grave, silver 
voice of the little clock on her mantle told the 
hour. The girl counted the vibrating strokes, 
then sprang from her pillow with a dismayed 
face. 

“I ’m sure I don’t know how I came to sleep 
so late this morning,” she was saying to Collins 
in the kitchen half an hour later. “ It must 
have been the rain, I think,” she added brightly. 
“I have gotten to depend lately on a certain 
sunbeam, which opens my eyes punctually at 
six o’clock every morning.” 

257 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


Collins glanced at the slight figure of her 
young mistress with a strenuous mingling of 
emotions on her round, red face. “ What you ’re 
a-goin’ to do passes me,” she said, with strong 
emphasis on the last word. “ You ’re that cruel 
overdone now that it ’s a sin an’ a shame. If it 
wa’n’t that I ’d passed my solemn word to 
Patrick Miles I declare to it I ’d stay with you 
in spite of everything. Miles ’as gone to market 
this mornin’,” she added irrelevantly. “ I told 
him as ’ow you could n’t be goin’ out in the 
pourin’ rain.” 

Miss Gordon’s cheeks suddenly reflected the 
glow of the fire as she deftly arranged a bit of 
crisp toast on a pretty china plate. “ I am very 
much obliged to Patrick,” she said hastily. 
“ I — I hope he will go to-morrow morning, too.” 

“ I ’ll tell him,” said Mrs. Miles, as she 
moved majestically across the kitchen with the 
full tray. 

Mrs. Sedgewick lifted heavy eyes to the 
dripping window-panes as her niece quietly set 
258 


A RAINY DAY 


out tlie breakfast service. “ Rain ! ” she syl- 
labled faintly. “ I ’ve scarcely slept the whole 
night through for the monotonous pouring, and 
just as I was beginning to feel deliciously drowsy 
those noisy birds began to chatter in the shrub- 
bery.” 

“ Don’t you think you would sleep better at 
night if you gave up your long afternoon nap, 
Aunt Margaret?” asked Love, and instantly 
repented the words as a displeased look clouded 
the face of the invalid. 

“ What an absurd idea, child,” said Mrs. 
Sedgewick sharply. “ My morning and after- 
noon naps are my only salvation ; I must rest 
when I can. I think I am growing more and 
more wakeful at night of late. You have no 
idea in your rude young strength how much I 
suffer alone in my room here.” 

“ No, dearest aunty, I know I cannot imagine,” 
murmured Love contritely. “ The night always 
seems so short to me.” 

“ Of course, it does,” agreed Mrs. Sedgewick, 
2 59 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


sipping lier chocolate languidly. “ I wish you 
would order Collins to put a cot for you in my 
dressing-room, child; then if I am unable to 
sleep I can awaken you easily. I must think 
of myself a little more, I find, and less of other 
people.” 

Love Gordon’s pale cheeks flushed, but she 
made no reply. Indeed, she presently fell to 
reproaching herself hotly for the rebellious 
thoughts which had crowded unbidden to her 
mind. “ Dear Aunt Margaret!” she murmured 
to herself tenderly, as she carried away the 
scarcely tasted meal; “she has lost so much, and 
I am so selfish to keep forgetting. I ought to 
be thankful — yes, thankful that I can do a little 
something to make her comfortable.” 

Perhaps it was this hard-earned sense of grati- 
tude wdiich caused the sweet young face to shine 
with so pleasant a light behind the breakfast 
things a few minutes later. 

“You look as pleased as if somebody had 
told you a fine piece of news, Love,” said Hazel 

260 


A RAINY DAY 


enviously as slie unfolded her napkin. “And 
it ’s a horridly disagreeable day, too ; Patrick 
and Collins are both cross, and I just know 
mother will have an attack of neuralgia. Do 
you know, Love Gordon, I sometimes think it 
is positively unpleasant to be living. ,, 

Love Gordon smiled. “Oh, no, you don’t 
really think anything of the kind, dear,” she 
said brightly. “This will be a beautiful day to 
finish those bee hats. I ’ve found a big pair 
of old shears that will cut the netting perfectly, 
and I ’ve some black point d’esprit to sew around 
the lower edge of the bonnet. You can tuck 
that in your jacket,” she explained, “ and not a 
bee can find its way inside.” 

“ Did you think of that all yourself, Love ? ” 
said Hazel admiringly. “ I ’ve been wondering 
how to keep them from creeping up — they ’re 
so clever and sly, the darlings!” 

“ We ’ll have that little arithmetic test first, 
you know,” went on Miss Gordon diplomati- 
cally; “then after luncheon I ’ll read to Aunt 

261 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


Margaret till slie falls asleep, and then we ’ll set 
our mighty intellects to work on the bee-bonnets 
— we can do our French as we sew.” 

Hazel made a wry face. “ I loathe arith- 
metic tests,” she said succinctly. “And you ’re 
far slyer than the bees, Love, when it comes to 
inventing hard questions for poor little me to 
answer. I think you ’re positively heartless. 
What difference will it make whether I know 
fractions perfectly or not? Answer me that, 
Lovina Gordon.” 

“ It will make far more difference than you 
think, Hazel,” said her cousin gravely. “You 
will soon grow to be a woman, dear. And, oh, 
little girl, I do want you to be an unselfish, good 
woman — for — for your sake, and for — ” 

“ Of course I ’m going to be good enough ,” 
interrupted Hazel with a petulant shrug. “ But 
too many compound fractions might make me 
positively vicious ; so look out, Miss Governess.” 

The arithmetic “ test ” being happily a thing 
of the past, and Mrs. Sedgewick wrapped in 

262 


A RAINY DAY 


peaceful slumber, the two girls settled themselves 
cosily to work on the bee-bonnets. “I don*t 
mind now if it is raining/’ said Hazel pleasantly. 
“ It will be good for the white clover, too, and 
white clover makes the sweetest, nicest honey of 
all.” 

“Does it?” asked Miss Gordon, somewhat 
absent-mindedly. Her brown eyes had strayed 
to the red roofs which peeped out from the 
dripping trees on the neighboring lawn. 

The corners of Hazel’s lips dimpled. “ You 
are thinking of John Lough,” she said confi- 
dently. “ I was, too, at that very minute. 
Was n’t it queer ? ” 

“ Was n’t what queer ?” demanded Miss Gor- 
don, a telltale flush creeping into her cheeks. 

“ Why, about his wanting to know what time 
you went to market. If he thinks you are 
making me work too hard, will you let me stop 
lessons for the rest of this month?” 

“ I don’t expect to consult Mr. Lough about 
your lessons, Hazel,” said Miss Gordon, with a 
2 63 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


spice of severity in her tones. “Why should 
I?” 

“Well, since you Ve asked me, I ’ll tell you,” 
said Hazel candidly. “ He put all sorts of 
questions about when I recited and wliat I 
studied ; and I can tell you he did n’t look 
pleased when I told him.” 

“ I can’t see why he should ask you such 
questions,” murmured Love, wrinkling her fore- 
head perplexedly over a breadth of point d’esprit. 

“ I can,” said Hazel. “ It ’s perfectly plain. 
He sympathizes with me ; that ’s why. He ’s 
very sympathizing, John Lough is. That ’s 
one reason I like him so much. Then he ’s 
clever; you don’t have to keep explaining things 
all the while. He just seems to see right through 
everything in a flash. I admire that; don’t 
you, Love?” 

“You should say sympathetic, not sympa- 
thizing, Hazel,” corrected Miss Gordon in a 
matter-of-fact tone. 

“ Perhaps I ought,” said Hazel hotly. “ But 
264 


A RAINY DAY 


you knew perfectly wliat I meant. It ’s aston- 
ishing to me that you and John Lough don’t 
like each other better. I would n’t be at all 
surprised if he would like you almost as well as 
he does me if you would act a little pleasanter 
and more friendly, and especially if you would n’t 
be so absurdly strict with my lessons. He does n’t 
like that one bit; I could see it perfectly yester- 
day. I ’m not dull when it comes to under- 
standing people, Lovina Gordon, even if I don’t 
know compound fractions very well.” 

Miss Gordon laughed outright. 

“ Oh, you can laugh,” said the little girl with 
an offended toss of her head; “but it ’s so.” 
She stole a sidelong glance at her cousin, and 
was astonished to see her sweet lips quivering. 
“There!” she cried. “I’ve gone and hurt 
your feelings. I did n’t mean to, though. You 
only make me work hard because you love me; 
don’t you, darling?” 

“ Just because I love you, Hazel.” The wet 
brown eyes were hidden for a minute or two in 

ll— Wings and Fetters. 265 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


HazeVs thick curls. “ You see, dear/' the soft 
voice weut on somewhat unsteadily, “ we two are 
very much alone in the world, now that mother 
is so weak and ill, and we must be careful to do 
our very best every single day. You must 
understand, Hazel, that even the longest life is 
made up of days and hours and minutes, and if 
we do just as well as we possibly can in every 
little duty and every bit of work that comes to 
us — even if we don’t altogether like it — by-and- 
bye we shall be quite grown up and ready, per- 
haps, for some splendid happening which may 
be coming toward us all the while.” 

“I like that thought, Lovina Gordon,” said 
Hazel after a short period of reflection. “ It — 
why, it ’s almost like a fairy-story, you know. 
You do that, I ’m sure, and that ’s the reason 
you never get cross and grumpy the way Collins 
does. Do you suppose if I learn compound 
fractions perfectly, so that you can’t puzzle me 
with your cleverest, slyest questions, that I shall 
266 


A RAINY DAY 


have something splendid happen to me after a 
while?” 

“It will certainly help you to grow strong 
and womanly, dear,” said Miss Gordon gently. 
“ But it ’s the growing strong we must think 
most of, and not the splendid reward.” 

“ That s where I differ with you,” said Hazel 
decidedly. “ I shall ask John Lough what he 
thinks about it.” 

That night, as Love Gordon lay staring at 
the hooded lamp from the narrow cot that had 
been placed in her aunts dressing-room, she 
remembered the conversation of the afternoon. 
“ I must think often about the growing strong,” 
she sighed to herself ; “ for the being strong is 
all my splendid reward.” Then she fell asleep, 
and dreamed the brief, troubled dreams of one 
who still wears the days fetters into the night’s 
peace. 


267 




































































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CHAPTER XYI 


A DIAMOND AND A TEAR 

L OVE GORDON stood in the latticed area 
at the kitchen door. A thousand shriek- 
ing whistles, softened by distance into 
something like harmonious sound, had just pro- 
claimed the hour of seven. The breath of 
honeysuckles and roses was on the cool morning 
breeze ; a chorus of thrushes, catbirds and song- 
sparrows were pouring forth a full tide of song 
in the tops of the tall trees. The young lady’s 
eyes were very bright and her cheeks very pink 
beneath the brim of her straw hat ; she was 
fingering the handle of her small splint basket 
nervously. “ Could you go to market this morn- 
ing, Patrick ? ” she asked, as the old man paused 
outside to remove certain clods of garden mould 
269 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


from liis boots before stepping onto the freshly 
scoured bricks. 

“ It ’ud put me out a good bit, <miss,” he re- 
plied doubtfully. “ I was wisliin’ to pick the 
rest of thim berries for the market-man before 
the sun gets too hot an’ drys thim up. It makes 
a big difference in the boxes, though you ’d not 
think it. It ’s a mornin’ to be out in, Miss 
Love. Why was n’t you wantin’ to go ? It ’s 
little enough of air an’ sunshine you ’re gettin’ 
these days — an’ more ’s the pity.” 

Love Gordon drew a deep breath ; the pink 
in her soft cheeks deepened. Then she lifted 
her head with a defiant little toss. “ I ’ll go,” 
Patrick,” she said with decision. “ I only 
thought I might pick the berries, you know,” 
she added hurriedly, her eyes drooping again. 

“ Indeed, an’ you ’ll not, miss,” cried Pat- 
rick, “ what with the briars an’ the mosquitoes 
your pretty hands ’ud be a sight. I had a talk 
with Eliza Collins last night,” he added in a low 
voice. “ She ’s as firm as a mountain — that 


270 


A DIAMOND AND A TEAR 


woman. I ’ve ’bout giv’ up on it. She says 
as liow she leaves this house bag an’ baggage 
one week from to-day. Ain’t there anything 
you could say to her, miss ? ” 

Miss Gordon shook her head dejectedly. “I 
really do not blame Collins in the least,” she 
said sadly. “ But, oh, Patrick, what shall we do 
without you ?” 

“ Did you s’pose I was goin’, too ?” demanded 
the old man gruffly. “ I ’ve took my stan’ an’ 
I ain’t a-goin’ to be moved by no woman on 
God’s footstool. No, I ain’t — not even if she 
is my lawful wedded wife ! Eliza Collins knows 
me.” 

“ Oh, Patrick, I could n’t think of having 
you stay after Collins is gone. I should feel too 
wicked to have broken up your home. We 
shall have to do the best we can without you ; 
but it nearly breaks my heart to think of it.” 
And indeed the tears were standing in the young 
lady’s brown eyes. “I have spoken to the vege- 
table man, she added after a pause, “and he 
271 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


thinks liis daughter will come to help in the 
kitchen ; Bertha is only eighteen and she has n’t 
worked out much, he says, but she is strong and 
willing. And that young Swan boy wants to 
do the weeding and mow the lawn; I told him 
to come and see me next week.” 

Patrick gave vent to a great snort of grief 
and rage. “Let me catch the young rapscal- 
lion about this place, an’ I ’ll break his good- 
fer-nothin’ neck fer him,” he cried wrathfully. 
“Why, Miss Love, they ’re the terror of the 
neighborhood — thim Swan boys ! Weed the 
garden, indeed ! He ’d carry off more fruit an’ 
garden stuff every day than he ’d earn if he 
worked a year ! I tell you I ain’t a-goin’, an’ 
that ends it ! Did n’t I promise the master 
afore I ever thought of such a fool notion as 
hitchen’ my wagon to Eliza Collinses. I beg 
your pardon, Miss Love, fer talkin’ so obstrep- 
erous like ; but you can’t undo my resolutions 
as was made in better days, an’ there ain’t any 
use in your tryin’ it. You leave this ’ere matter 
272 


A DIAMOND AND A TEAR 


to me, an’ don’t you go to worryin’ your pretty 
head about it no more.” 

For some reason, which the girl did not ex- 
plain to herself, she chose a roundabout way to 
the unpretentious market. The butcher was all 
smiles as he caught sight of Miss Gordon’s slim 
figure. He had been booking certain astonish- 
ing orders delivered in an absent-minded man- 
ner by a tall young gentleman in tweeds. 

This young man had retired precipitately 
through the back entrance of the shop at sight 
of the blue gown in the doorway — in the very 
midst of a dissertation on the comparative merits 
of spring lamb and spring chickens delivered 
by the obliging butcher. 

“ Yes, certainly,” the new customer had re- 
sponded hastily. “ You may send up half a 
dozen of them, if you please.” 

“You don’t mean lambs, sir?” inquired the 
astonished butcher. 

“ Yes, lambs, of course; did n’t you say those 
were best? Send them up at once, and — ” It 
273 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


was at this juncture that the harmlessly de- 
mented gentleman (as the marketman shrewdly 
suspected him to be) abruptly quitted the 
shop. 

“ Curious circumstance — very/’ remarked the 
genial purveyor of flesh foods, as he popped a 
pair of neatly wrapped sweet-breads into the lit- 
tle splint basket. “ Gentleman walked in here 
some fifteen minutes ago, wandered about, staring 
through his glasses at my stock, and finally 
ordered six spring lambs sent to his house; 
yes ’in, six! You could have knocked me down 
with a feather* Did you see him, miss? Tall 
chap, with glasses. I 11 bet he ’s as crazy as a 
loon. Sad, ain’t it?” 

The young lady’s cheeks took on an extra 
tinge of color, as she ventured the remark that 
possibly the new customer was unaccustomed to 
marketing. She walked very fast after leaving 
the shop, and without once turning her head. 
But it was of no use; he overtook her at the 
first corner. “ Do you always walk as fast as 
274 


A DIAMOND AND A TEAR 


this, Miss Gordon? Upon my word, I had all 
I could do to come up with you. I was deter- 
mined to see you this morning,” he added 
coolly, after a short pause. “Friends ought to 
see one another often, you know; and I have 
scarcely laid eyes on you, Love, since that 
blessed day you went to the grocery. I never 
knew before how interesting grocery and butcher 
shops were.” 

He was looking at her eagerly as he talked. 
“You don’t mind my coming, do you, Love? 
I asked Hazel yesterday. I just had to! I was 
hungry for a sight of my — ” He stopped short 
at the little gesture of denial and repulsion 
which the girl involuntarily made. “This is 
no place to speak,” he went on hastily; “but I 
never seem to be able to see you — to speak to 
you. Let us turn into this quiet lane; it is 
really a nearer way home.” This, as she shook 
her head with a frightened air that went to his 
heart. 

“Love — Love! You are not afraid of me, 


275 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


are you, dear? Because I love you, I want you 
to be my wife ! ” 

A great light flashed into the innocent eyes 
uplifted to meet his. Then the radiance faded. 
“I — I cannot. I must not even listen,” she 
said brokenly. “ You do not understand — But, 
my promise — I cannot.” 

The white, sparkling stone on the trembling 
little hand that held the splint basket suddenly 
flashed a terrible meaning into the man’s soul. 
He stopped short, his face white and stern. 
“ Do you mean — are you telling me that you 
are promised to another? Tell me quick for 
God’s sake!” 

The girl nodded. Then a heart-broken little 
sob mingled with the jubilant love-song of the 
thrush swinging on the very topmost bough of 
the big elm tree under which she was walking. 
He had left her — “ forever,” she told herself, 
with the poignant despair of youth, and was 
hurrying away with great strides. 

It was a very quiet little figure, with a sad, 
276 


A DIAMOND AND A TEAR 


far-away look in the sweet brown eyes, that 
stole into tlie invalid’s chamber an hour later. 
She was carrying a tray, crowded with a dainty 
breakfast service, which she presently set forth 
on a small table drawn close to the bedside. 
“ Here are some letters, Aunt Margaret. Will 
you see them first, or shall I pour the choco- 
late?” 

Mrs. Sedgewick extended a languid hand. 
“There can be nothing of interest,” she said 
dejectedly. “My life is ended. I can only 
drag out the remnant of my days in this gloomy 
spot.” 

The girl reached for her damp handkerchief, 
and wiped away two or three rebellious drops 
which hung on her long lashes. Mrs. Sedge- 
wick lifted her eyes from the slow process of 
opening one of the letters. “ Why, what is 
coming over you, Love?” she asked somewhat 
sharply. “ This is the second time I have seen 
you in tears of late. Really, my dear, I cannot 
endure to have gloomy people about me, and 
277 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


you know that perfectly well. My own sorrows 
are heavy enough without having the fancied 
grievances of others obtruded upon me. You 
must really make it a point to be more cheerful. 
It is most trying to my nerves to see you de- 
pressed and gloomy. I think it is positively 
ungrateful, my dear.” 

She dropped her eyes to the sheet which 
she had been languidly unfolding. Her eyes 
widened as she read ; a quick color leaped up 
in her faded cheeks. 

Then she sat up straight among her pillows. 
“ Bring me my dressing-gown and slippers, 
quick, Love! — The most astonishing piece of 
news! Really, I am all in a flutter !” 

“What is it, Aunt Margaret?” asked the 
girl anxiously. 

“I must go to Boston immediately. Dear, 
dear, how kind and thoughtful of poor Aunt 
Sedgewick. I wonder what her own nieces and 
nephews will have to say.” 

“ Is she ill — Aunt Sedgewick, I mean ? ” 
278 


A DIAMOND AND A TEAR 


asked Love, more and more astonished at the 
extraordinary energy displayed by the invalid, 
who was actually dressing herself with speed. 

“ She is dead, poor woman. Apoplexy, the letter 
says, and I am left residuary legatee ! Just think 
of it, my dear! A very handsome property, the 
lawyer says. I know him quite well — a Mr. 
Gibbs, a most reliable person. Oh, how thank- 
ful I am to poor, dear Aunt Sedge wick ! I was 
always kind and polite to her, though your uncle 
used to declare that she was a selfish, heartless 
woman. And disagreeable she certainly could 
be. She led those two nieces of her’s a life of 
it, I am told. And now they are cut off with 
small legacies. Designing persons, both of them. 
Aunt Sedgewick spoke to me of them more than 
once. But I never dreamed — do call Hazel, 
child ! I want to tell her at once.” 

But Hazel was nowhere to be found. She 
crept into the dining-room just as Collins was 
clearing the table, her eyes red and swollen as if 
279 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


from a violent fit of weeping. “ Where is Lovina 
Gordon?” she demanded. 

“I don’t know, miss,” said Collins. “Bat 
what ever is the matter with you, child ? Have 
the bees been stinging you?” 

But Hazel was dashing up the stairs two 
steps at a time. “ Love, I want you ! Love — 
Love Gordon.” 

“Come here, Hazel,” called her mother’s 
voice. “ I want to tell you something.” 

“ Is Love here ? ” demanded the little girl. 

“ Love has gone to telephone for a carriage, 
my dear. Oh, what a sadly wild girl you do 
look — and tears ! Love was crying, too, this 
morning. But we shall make everything right 
once more. We have had a fortune left us, dear I 
and we shall be able to have our old home again 
and the carriages and all. Is n’t that a beauti- 
ful surprise ?” 

Hazel shook the hair out of her red eyes. 
“ Do you mean we shall have to leave this house?” 
she asked. 


280 


A DIAMOND AND A TEAR 


“ Yes, indeed ; I don’t intend to remain here 
another day! Are n’t you delighted, girlie?” 

“ I should have been as mad as a hornet yes- 
terday,” said Hazel dejectedly; “ but now I don’t 
care. John Lough is going to Europe — to stay 
I don’t know how long ! ” 

“I wonder if Love knew that?” was Mrs. 
Sedgewick’s unuttered question. It was answered 
presently when the girl herself entered the 
room, and Hazel blurted out her news. Miss 
Gordon’s face whitened perceptibly, and she 
sank into the nearest chair without replying. 

“ Did you hear what I said, Lovina Gordon?” 
demanded the little girl. “ You take it as coolly 
as if you did n’t care a bit. If you don’t care, 
you ought to; so there!.’’ 

“ Why, pray, should Love interest herself in 
Mr. Lough’s movements ? ” said Mrs. Sedgewick 
severely. “ Hazel, my dear child, I really think I 
must put you into Miss Porter’s care without 
delay. Your manners are something terrifying. 
You must learn to be more quiet and decorous, 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


my dear. Nothing is so excessively bourgeois as 
unbridled emotion of any kind.” 

“ I can’t think what has happened to John 
Lough,” Hazel was saying disconsolately. “He 
was just as pleasant and nice as he could be 
yesterday. And this morning I ran over to tell 
him that I was afraid my second hive was going 
to swarm, and there he sat in the library — like 
a stone ! J ust like a stone ! And Myers was 
packing up. Then he told me he was going 
away. I asked him if it was to Europe, and he 
said he did n’t care. Europe would do.” 

“Do be quiet a minute, Hazel,” said Mrs. 
Sedgewick abstractedly. “ I want to talk to 
Love now. There are so many things to do and 
to think of, I hardly know how to begin. But 
one thing, child — the strangest coincidence, 
really. Among the other letters was a note 
from my good old Jane. Her husband died 
suddenly two months ago, and she wishes to 
return to me. I was almost as much pleased to 
hear that news as the other. Of course, I don’t 

282 


A DIAMOND AND A TEAR 


mean I was glad to liear of poor Aunt Sedge- 
wick’s sudden death; her unexpected thought- 
fulness for me was really so surprising. But I 
cannot help thinking that it is especially provi- 
dential that Jane should be at liberty just now 
to come back to me. She is such a treasure, 
and understands my ways so thoroughly. I 
want you to send Patrick with some telegrams, 
Love. I shall telegraph Jane to come to me at 
once . She can accompany me to Boston. And 
I think I shall take Patrick. One needs a man 
as well as a maid. Collins will stay with you 
here; or, better still, you can both go to dear 
Mrs. de Forest for a week or two. She has 
urged it repeatedly .” 

Love Gordon was staring blankly at the 
pretty flushed face of the speaker. “ But, Aunt 
Margaret,” she faltered, “ don’t you want me? 
I promised, you know — I promised to stay with 
you always! Don't you remember ?” The soft 
young voice rose almost to a wail with the last 
words. 


283 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


“Why, my dear Love, what an odd fancy! 
Did you suppose I meant never to allow you a 
holiday, child? You really have been the 
greatest comfort to me. I don’t know how I 
should ever have gotten along without you. 
When Jane comes back you shall see how I 
will reward your patience. I mean to send you 
back to Bryn Mawr, for one thing. You 
need n’t tell me you did n’t mind giving it up, 
my dear. I knew quite well that you did — 
even if Mr. Scudder had n’t told me so. But 
I mean to make it up to you, child. You shall 
see. And we shall have a grand coming-out 
party after you graduate, just as your dear uncle 
planned it all.” 

Mrs. Sedgewick spoke rapidly and with a 
touch of real anxiety in her smooth tones. The 
white despair in that young face threatened to 
become trying to the nerves. It was really a 
relief when the girl rose and quietly left the 
room. 

“What is the matter with Love?” asked 
284 


A DIAMOND AND A TEAR 


Hazel in a subdued voice. “ She looked almost 
as strangely as John Lough did.” 

“ I don't know, I am sure,” said Mrs. Sedge- 
wick uneasily. 

“ Perhaps it 's because she promised to stay 
with you always, and now you would rather 
have Jane,” observed Hazel. “I think that 
might make me feel bad.” 

“How unpleasantly you do put things, child!” 
said her mother fretfully. “ I did n't say I 
would rather have Jane with me. Of course, 
Love did the very best she could; but she is 
young and inexperienced. I should never think 
of such a thing as comparing her with Jane. 
Why, Jane is a servant , child, and Love is my 
niece. You must learn to distinguish more 
carefully, my dear.” 

Hazel had drawn her black brows together. 
She was evidently thinking deeply. Presently 
she too sprang up and stole quietly along the 
hall, pausing in front of her cousin's door. A 
faint, sobbing breath reached the small, inquisi- 

285 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


tive ear which was applied to the keyhole. “ It 
must be something awful,” reflected the child 
forlornly, “ Love would never cry over it, if it 
was n’t. She is n’t the crying kind.” 

She wandered aimlessly out to her bee-liives, 
and stood watching the winged workers darting 
in and out of their modest mansions. 

“If we have to go away from here,” she 
thought, “what shall I do with these bees? 
They have to be fixed warm for winter; John 
Lough said so. He promised to show me how. 
Oh, dear, dear ! how miserable I do feel ! I 
know what I ’ll do: I’ll just go over and ask 
John Lough what he means to do with his bees 
while he ’s gone. Perhaps Tompkins will stay 
and take care of them. I suppose I can’t keep 
mine if I have to go to boarding-school. I 
don’t believe Miss Porter could run fast enough 
to get away from a cross bee.” 

She laughed aloud at the idea of the dignified 
preceptress in full flight before one of the winged 
Amazons. She was still smiling when she 
tapped at John Lough’s half-open library door. 

286 


CHAPTER XVII 
THE FAIRY PRINCE 

T HE master of tlie house was looking over 
some scattered sheets of manuscript with 
a far-away look in his grey eyes when 
the little girl obtruded her tear-stained face into 
his room. “ I hope I am not disturbing you,” 
she began timidly; “ but if I am never to see you 
any more there are some things about the bees I 
would like to ask you.” 

“Come in, child,” he said kindly; “I am 
afraid I was very cross and disagreeable when 
you were here this morning. To tell you the 
truth, Hazel, I had just heard a piece of very 
bad news and I was completely knocked up by 
it. Do you remember the fairy story I told you 
the other day about the soap-bubble princess, 
287 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


and of liow her great, beautiful palace vanished 
at a single touch ? That is just what happened 
to me; I hardly knew how large and beautiful 
an air-castle I had been building till it tumbled 
about my unlucky ears.” 

Hazel regarded him with large, mournful eyes. 
“ I guess that s what happened to me, too — 
and to Love,” she said with a sigh. “ I don’t 
know what is the matter with everybody lately,” 
she continued, wrinkling her forehead discon- 
tentedly. “ Mother thinks we ought to be per- 
fectly happy just because she ’s had a lot of 
money left to her. But I ’m to go to boarding 
school, and I just hate that! Only think, the 
girls at Miss Porters never go out except walk- 
ing two and two with a teacher. How do you 
think you would like that, John Lough? — to 
walk in a kind of a procession, as if you were an 
orphan, or a — ” She stopped short and eyed 
her listener anxiously. “ I do believe I need to 
be shut up in a boarding school,” she said peni- 
tently. “ Mother says my manners are terrify- 
288 


THE FAIRY PRINCE 


ing — to think of my mentioning orphans , when 
you ’re one ! Love would know better. Love 
is to go back to school, too. You know she 
was a sophomore at Bryn Mawr when father 
died, and because we were poor she was willing 
to stay a sophomore forever just to be with mother. 
But now she ’s going back, and she does n’t seem 
to like it any better than I do.” 

He was fingering one of the scattered pages 
on his desk. “I should think not under the 
circumstances,” he replied coldly. 

Hazel frowned. “ You don’t like Love very 
well, I see,” she said disapprovingly. “ You would, 
though, if you knew her as I do. But I won’t 
talk about her any more; I came to ask you 
about the bees. What are you going to do 
about your bees — When you go to Europe, I 
mean?” 

“I don’t know,” he said wearily. “I have n’t 
thought of them. Of course, though, it ’s simple 
enough ; I shall leave Tompkins in charge of 
the place. He will look after everything. You 
289 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


may have the bees, if you like, child. I doubt 
if I come back here again for some years — per- 
haps not then. ,, 

He spoke more to himself than to the little 
girl. It seemed to him on a sudden that he 
could not bear to look often on the door which 
had framed her young loveliness that morning 
in May — that it would be well-nigh intolerable 
to walk alone under the great trees where he 
had walked with her. So short a time, yet all 
nature seemed to have withdrawn her once 
dearly-loved face behind a veil of sadness, and 
all because — . He shook his broad shoulders 
with an impatient frown at his own folly. “ I 
am no love-sick boy,” he told himself. “I will 
go away and work — and forget. Labor is, after 
all, the sweet, calm mistress in whose service 
there is peace.” 

He forced himself to listen to Hazels short, 
disjointed sentences. “ I really could n’t, you 
see. If I was only a boy I should not be obliged 
to have my manners formed. It is so unpleasant 

290 


THE FAIRY PRINCE 


to think about being ‘ formed/ as if one were a 
jelly or a blanc-mange. If I could stay here 
with Love and have all the bees, I am quite 
sure we would be rich soon — rich enough I mean 
to have a good time, and not so rich that every- 
thing would be disagreeable. I wish Aunt 
Sedgewick had stayed alive and kept her money, 
then Love could have stopped with mother. 
That ’s what she was crying about, I suppose. 
I had no idea she was so fond of mother as that ; 
why, I did n’t cry at the thought of mother’s 
going to Boston without me. But perhaps it ’s 
because I am not formed yet.” 

“ I don’t think I understand,” he said in a 
low, hesitating voice. “ Miss Gordon would 
certainly be obliged to leave her aunt soon ; that 
is, when — when her marriage takes place.” 

Hazel stared at him in undisguised astonish- 
ment. Then she burst into a peal of elfin 
laughter. “ Her marriage / ” she ejaculated. 
“Whose marriage? You’re not talking about 
Lo vina Gordon, are you?” 

291 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


“ I was certainly speaking of Miss Gordon,” 
he replied, rising to his feet with a frown. 
“ But I ’m very sure she would not like to have 
us discuss her affairs. I beg you will not men- 
tion it.” 

“ Of course, not,” said Hazel, somewhat crest- 
fallen. “ But it was so awfully funny to think 
of Love’s being married. That ’s what I tease 
her about sometimes. She ’s a sort of fairy 
princess, Lovina Gordon is; but there’s never 
a sign of a fairy prince in the story.” The lit- 
tle girl was edging toward the door with a very 
red face. The look in the grey eyes somehow 
frightened her. She swallowed hard and winked 
very fast as she added primly : “ I will say 
good-bye, now, John Lough; and I — I thank you 
very much for all your kindness about the bees; 
and — and I hope you will have a very good 
time in Europe.” 

“ Stop, Hazel 1 ” 

She looked back at him with a toss of her 
naughty head. “ I want to go quick,” she said, 
292 


THE FAIRY PRINCE 


“ before you get any queerer. I want to remem- 
ber you just as — ” 

He caught her by both slim wrists. “You 
teasing elf, you ! ” he exclaimed. “ You mis- 
chief-making will-o’-the-wisp! You have led 
me on through hopes and fears, and into this 
slough of despair, where I am stuck fast. Now 
I have caught you, and I will not let you go 
till I have found out what I wish. Tell me 
quick, is Miss Gordon going to be married? Or 
did I misunderstand her, like the oaf that I 
am?” 

A spark of mischief kindled in Hazel’s black 
eyes. “ If I am a teasing elf — a mischief-making 
will-o’-the-wisp, what are you?” she demanded. 
“Are you really an oaf — or are you the fairy 
prince?” 

“ Never mind, naughty child ; answer me ! 
I must know before I make any more stupid 
blunders. Or, stay! I will do now what I ought 
to have done in the beginning.” He loosed his 
293 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


hold on her wrists. “ Come, fairy,” he said 
gravely; “I am going to see your mother.” 

Mrs. Sedgewick was most gracious during the 
interview that followed. She assured John 
Lough that although her niece was very young — 
indeed, the poor child’s education was scarcely 
complete — that there was really no one to whose 
hands she would more gladly entrust her future. 

“But is there — may I ask you to be quite 
frank with me? — is there any previous attach- 
ment — any promise which would stand in the 
way of my wishes?” he asked in a low voice. 

“ I think I can assure you positively that 
there is nothing of the kind,” smiled the lady. 
She colored becomingly under his steady eyes. 
“ The dear child had a fancy — a fond and fool- 
ish fancy, of course — that she must always stay 
with me; and, indeed, dear Mr. Lough, had 
you preferred your request only yesterday, I 
should have been almost selfish enough to have 
sent you away disconsolate. I fear I could not 
have been altogether willing to give up our use- 

294 


THE FAIRY PRINCE 


ful queen bee, as Hazel sometimes calls her 
cousin. But, of course, the happy change in 
our circumstances will make the parting easier. 
I will send Love to you at once, Mr. Lough. 
I am sure you will make her a happy woman; 
and the dear child deserves all the happiness 
that can come to her.” 

He had to wait a long time quite alone in the 
pleasant room before his ears detected the slow, 
hesitating step outside the door. She stood 
before him presently, her sweet face all flushed 
and tremulous. 

“You — you wished to see me?” she asked 
faintly. 

He was smiling down at her through a sort of 
glorified mist, which seemed to enfold the two of 
them. “ Yes, Love,” he whispered, “ I wished to 
see you — always /” 

“ Things have turned out very well for every 
body but me, I should say,” observed Hazel, one 
morning some six weeks later. Patrick and 


295 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


Collins are as pleased as Punch to think of 
living in that lovely cottage and looking after 
both the places. Even my bees act as happy 
and contented as if they had n’t been moved 
down to John Lough’s house to stay. I went to 
say good-bye to them just now, and they did n’t 
care a bit that we ’re all going away.” She 
glanced disconsolately about the room, where 
several half filled trunks yawned wide for more 
of the dainty frocks and furbelows that lay here 
and there heaped on bed and chairs. 

“ But we re all coming back, you know, Hazel,’* 
said Love Gordon happily. “ Think of next 
summer, dear.” 

“ That ’s all very well for you,” said the little 
girl discontentedly. “ This very night you ’re 
to be dressed in that lovely white gown and 
stand up before that funny little minister, and 
in a twinkling you ’ll be changed to Mrs. John 
Lough. Then you two will go away to travel in 
England and Scotland and Italy and Venice. 
And you ’ll probably never think of me, grub- 

296 



Wings and Fetters — 4, 

“‘YES,’ HE WHISPERED, ‘I WISHED TO SEE YOU ALWAYS.’” 

See />. 295. 




THE FAIRY PRINCE 


bing away over my stupid history and grammar 
and that awful algebra ! ” 

Miss Gordon's eyes were very bright and 
sweet as she drew the stormy little figure into 
her arms. “ Hazel, dear/’ she whispered, 
“ indeed I shall think of my little girl every 
single day. And so will — John.” 

The last word fell from her lips after the most 
lovable little pause. “ And remember, dear, how 
even your beautiful queen bee has to stay for a 
time in her narrow cell while her wings are 
growing. The history and grammar and algebra 
— which is n’t really awful at all when one 
begins to understand it — are a sort of royal 
jelly, which will make my little girl strong and 
wise and useful when she comes out of school 
into the big world outside. Don’t you see, 
dear?” 

Hazel snuggled her rough locks against her 
cousin’s soft cheek. “I like that idea, Lovina 
Gordon!” she said. “You always do have 
such good ideas ! I sha’n’t tell it to a single one 

IQ — Wings and Fetters. 2 Q 7 


WINGS AND FETTERS 


of the other girls. It shall just keep it for my 
own particular comfort. And when my lessons 
are terribly hard I ’ll remember that they ’re 
only delicious royal jelly that ’ll make me into 
a queen bee some day — just like you, Love ! ” 

298 





































































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STEPHEN, A SOLDIER OF THE CROSS 

By FLORENCE MORSE KINGSLEY 

Author of “Titus” “Paul” “ The Cross Triumphant,” etc. 

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Phannias, a “ child of the law Nazarite, priest and warrior— 
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WINGS AND FETTERS 

A STORY FOR GIRLS 

By FLORENCE MORSE KINGSLEY 
Author of “Titus,” “ Stephen ” “Paul,” etc. 

Cloth, Illustrated, $1.00 

The heroine is an attractive young woman of nineteen, who 
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With the transformation of the old house comes the discovery 
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RATAPLAN : A ROGUE ELE- 
PHANT, AND OTHER STORIES 000 

By ELLEN VELVIN, F. Z. S. 

A FEW APPRECIATIONS OF THE BOOK 


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GALOPOFF, THE TALKING PONY 

By TUDOR JENKS 

Author ol “GYPSY, THE TALKING DOG," Etc. 

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Illustrations by Reginald B. Bireh 


Henry Altemus Company, Philadelphia 






























































































































NOV. t5 1902 

















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